The Adventures of Jack
by GoldDragonZ
Summary: Two years have passed since Wade Watts, aka Parzival and the High Five won the Easter Egg. All players who were involved with the final battle with the I.O.I. were granted their gear and coins so they could continue playing in the Oasis. Tuesdays and Thursdays are when it is shut down so people could enjoy real life. New heroes mix with old in this new adventure introducing Jack.
1. Chapter 1

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

 **GoldDragonZ:** I have looked at the movie and was really influenced by all that happened. I want to make my own story based on the OASIS about my own character named Jack. Please enjoy as I do not own the movie or the book that it is based off of.

The following takes place two years after Wade and his clan won the Easter egg. Wade, Helen, Samantha, Akihide and Toshiro and their families were taken to the headquarters of the OASIS where all the computer servers were kept in a cool environment. They then lived happy lives and continued playing on the OASIS and made many friends online and in the real world. They realized that life is what you make of it. They continued to make strides in the real world, going to elementary school, high school and college. Many people were employed by the creators of the OASIS as all the information needed to be protected. As a reward for helping Wade and his team win, all the players who took place in the last battle against the Innovative Online Industries, or IOI, were granted all their coins and gear that the amassed up to the point against the IOI. One such player held the Avatar Name of Jack_100292402. Jack had taken the form of Optimus Primal from Season One of the Beast Wars television show and fought on the ground with other members of the OASIS. Jack had not joined a clan and did things his own way. He fought hard until everyone was destroyed because of the bomb. And then Wade had beaten the IOI. It took months for Wade and his team to fight for the items that their comrades had so that they were given back to them. For Jack, that included a black space ship designated in Japanese, the _Tensa Zangetsu,_ or 'Heaven Chain Slaying Moon' _._ It was named after the main character of the anime Bleach, Ichigo Kurosaki's weapon. It was black in colour and was similar in structure to _The Pillar of Autumn_ which is the ship from _Halo: Combat Evolved,_ as well as the ship from Toonami, the _Absolution._ However, there were many missile and laser turrets attached to the hull. There were two Mack cannons which fire nuclear projectiles that decimated other ships. These projectiles could be swapped out for other projectiles as well. Within the confines of the ship were robot ships and workers. Jack had several personal ships that he could pilot in the hangar as well. He had amassed quite the collection of vehicles ranging from X-wings from _Star Wars_ to Audi-V8s that could all be customized with different colours. He had the LTD from _Men in Black_. He had the General Lee from the hit TV show _Dukes of Hazzard._ He had much more as well. His Avatar was an Indian man with gold eyes, of average height, with long black hair done up in a top knot with a red ribbon. He had a slim yet athletic build as well. Usually, he wore black and red armour similar to Japanese samurai armour but kept his head exposed. He had Batman's gauntlets and his armour was very similar in design to Mjolnir Powered Assault Armour from the _Halo_ series of video games, books, and online shorts. He also had Sokka from _Avatar: The Last Airbender's_ Black sword strapped to his back as his primary Melee weapon. He had two black and red Desert Eagle pistols strapped to his hips as well. Like the other players, these weapons could be swapped out for other weapons at any time. Attached to his left ankle was a black hilted knife with a black dragon design on its blade. The sheathe itself was red to match Jack's armour. Jack made his way to the bridge of his ship. Various robots were at the task of making sure the ship was running smoothly. They were monitoring lighting as well as the radars so that they could see where other ships were. Within the ship there were areas where he could customize his items as well as fix other items. He was well known throughout the OASIS as someone who could fix anything as he had used most of his coins to upgrade his tool benches and factories within his Gargantuan ship. That is the reason he had a ship. If anyone needed anything fixed, he could fly over to the world where they were and use a special drop ship that could carry them and the object they needed to be fixed to the _Tensa Zangetsu._ Jack would then repair the item and earn points or coins while doing it.

He had a huge hangar that ships could park and their item could be taken out to be repaired. He had all of his items displayed throughout his ship as well, but he had it locked down so only people he wanted could see his collection. He had several friends from his school who knew who he was in the real world and he allowed them to see his collection within his ship.

In the real world, his name was Mark Patel. He lived in Canada in a town just outside of Toronto which is the capital of Ontario, one of the provinces of Canada. He went to a Roman Catholic High-school that made the students wear uniforms which included dress shoes, dress shirts, and pants as well as the school sweater or vest with the school crest on the left breast. He was 17 years old and was almost finished high school. He was really skinny and had bad acne. He wore glasses and lived with his mother and father. He had a younger brother and a younger sister. He hung out with kids who were just like him. They were not good at sports. While he was one of the smartest kids in his grade, one of his friends had special needs. They had learning disabilities. He had smart friends as well and they were indeed smarter than he was. If it was not for them, he would not be where he was grades wise. He was also a musician as his parents forced him to go to piano lessons. He did not like it, but he liked playing songs that he wanted to play. He liked singers like Jay Z or Rihanna but knew how to play songs by Johann Sebastian Bach and Beethoven. His mother and father liked love songs so he played some of those as well. He owned his own virtual reality Headset, OASIS console, and sensation X-suit that were given to him as gifts for being such a son to his parents.

After school was finished, he often walked home by himself to his house. His parents worked different shifts so he would not see either of them for some time. His mother worked the day shift 9 am -5 pm at a building firm where she was an IT specialist. His dad worked the nightshift 4:30 pm – 2:00 am at a bus company within Toronto where he drove buses. He preferred to be alone, working away at whatever homework he had, practising the piano, and playing on the OASIS. His real life was not pleasant as he felt like an outsider. He was a good kid. He kept to his Christian beliefs however in the OASIS he could do anything literally anything. No doubt that if his parents knew what he was doing, he would be banned from playing the game. Only his friends knew who he was on the OASIS. He longed to meet Wade Watts, also known as Parzival, and the rest of the High Five. That is why he tried to make it well known that he could fix anything in the hopes that Wade would find out and use him, or even add him to the group although that probably would not happen.

Jack/Mark was on the bridge of the ship, looking out to space. He usually took up residence on the outer rim of the OASIS and could see the different worlds or maps that he could travel to either by ship or portal. He pulled up the schematics to the OASIS and picked up where one of his friends was playing a racing game. His friend Tom, or Tom_001 on the OASIS was playing on that circuit and Jack_100292402 decided to go and play with him.

"Hey Tom!" Jack said, calling Tom on the cell phone app he used in the game. "Is there room to play with you or is it too late?"

"You can join, but it will force you to go to the back of the pack." Tom said. "Do you think you can win this?"

"Probably not," Jack said. "But think of the fun."

Tom's race began so it allowed time for Jack to get to the track while Tom played the game. Jack used a black painted X-wing from Star Wars which had yellow stripes and flew around the race track. Tom had taken the form of a Caucasian male with various tattoos all along his body. He wore a leather vest with a golden eagle sprawled on the back of it. He wore black leather gloves as well. He wore a black tank top underneath the vest and black leather pants and black hard boots that looked like a biker's boots. He wore a bad ass helmet with silver/ chrome wings painted on the sides. He had blue eyes and had long brown hair and a goatee with red highlights. For the race, he was using Ghost Rider's motorcycle. He used various weapons to try and push other racers off a bridge that was part of the track. He used rocket launchers, Spawn's Hell Chains of Destiny, and machine guns to pop tires, and turn over other vehicles. Other players were doing the same with weapons of their own. They were all trying to destroy each other by blasting each other away or flipping each other over. They tried running into each other with their cars. Someone driving the Tumbler from Batman Begins tried running into Tom and his motorcycle. Tom did a one wheeler and landed on the Tumbler. He used the Hell Chains of Destiny and wrapped them around the Tumbler. He broke the vehicle in two and caused an explosion. Coins erupted from the Tumbler's chase. Tom reached out and used the Hell Chains of Destiny to pull the coins to himself. He revved his engines and started going faster than before. He passed several cars, shooting them with a Mac 10. He damaged several tires, blowing them out. Tom laughed and he passed the cars. The flames from his motorcycle burned up the concrete and he left other drivers in the wake of the flames.

One driver had enough of Tom's foolishness and decided to take things into his own hands. His avatar looked like Vin Diesel wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans and black shoes. He was driving a Dodge Charger and pulled up beside Tom. He pulled out a double barrelled shot gun and shot at Tom's tires. Tom laughed and started shooting at the Vin Diesel look alike. The flames from the motorcycle burnt up the pellets from the shot gun. Suddenly, an obstacle appeared in front of them. They broke away from each other and went around the obstacle. This gave the Vin Diesel enough time to reload. He then ran into a weapon button that placed a weapon on his vehicle. It was a mini-gun that was on a device that let it turn. Vin Diesel turned the weapon to point at Tom. Tom pressed the brakes and turned so that he was directly behind Vin Diesel. Tom pulled out two Mac-10s and with both hands started firing at the Dodge Charger. Vin Diesel swivelled the mini gun so that it pointed at Tom. Tom pulled a chord and at the last second a glider erupted from the bike. He flew up into the air as Vin Diesel tried shooting him. Tom used Spawn's Hell Chains of Destiny to wrap around the mini gun and destroy it. Tom landed on top of the Dodge Charger, and aimed one of the Mac 10s and fired at the driver side of the car, killing Vin Diesel. The car turned a sharp left, and slammed into the wall. Coins erupted from the wreckage and Tom picked up some of it and continued the race. He drove around obstacles and made his way to the front of the pack. He drove passed flamethrowers, and pressed a red button on his motorcycle. The wheels erupted with blue flames and he started going faster.

Jack in the meantime flew over the race in his X-wing, following his friend. It was against the rules of this game to use a ship or plane as they needed to use any land vehicle. Thus all he could do is follow Tom as he played against other people who drove quickly. And then, Tom was in third place. In second place was a person who drove a blue monster truck. The avatar was hidden from view so Tom and Jack could not see who was in the driver seat. Tom pulled out his two Mac 10s and fired at the huge wheels of the monster struck. Tom reloaded and continued firing, trying his hardest to make the blue monster truck to crash. He then pulled out the Hell Chains of Destiny to destroy the monster truck's wheels. Suddenly, a sniper rifle emblem appeared in front of the monster truck. They picked up the weapon and opened their door to point the barrel of the weapon at Tom. The front wheel of the motorcycle veered to the right as the bullet from the sniper rifle destroyed the front wheel. Tom fell off the vehicle and several other players passed him.

"FUCK!" Tom screamed into his microphone.

"That sucks!" Jack said. "Hurry Tom, get back on your bike."

Tom looked at his motorcycle and opened up a panel to choose a replacement wheel from his inventory. He then climbed back on the motorcycle and was off again. This time, he was in sixth place. He passed obstacles. He picked up a red Mario shell and flung it forward. It slammed into the person that was in front of him. The vehicle spun out and Tom went into fifth place. He drove as fast as he could. He brought up his Mac 10s and fired at the person in front of him. However, the vehicle stopped abruptly. Tom was flung forward from his motorcycle. The person peeled away and other people passed around Tom. Tom ran to his motorcycle to look at the destruction that had happened to his vehicle. The whole front of the motorcycle was smashed in. The flames were extinguished and it seemed that the motorcycle would not start anymore. Tom cursed yet again. Time was of the essence so he put his motorcycle away and pulled out the program to choose another vehicle. He picked a black Pontiac Thunderbird which had a red and white eagle imprinted on the hood of the car. He also put away his helmet and started the car. He used a health pack to restore health to his avatar. He peeled off to try and finish the race. He ran into an ability credit to fire rockets from two rocket launchers that appeared on the roof of the car. Tom locked onto the car in front of him and fired two rockets. They slammed into the back and the car spun out of control. Tom passed them and laughed. He finished the race however did not come close to third, let alone first.

"Do you want to start again?" Jack asked Tom.

"Hell yeah." Tom said. "Wait, WWE is on now."

"Can't you record the program?"

"How do you do that?"

"Never mind. Go enjoy your show. I will fix your bike when the show's finished."

"Can't you take it now?"

"Yeah sure."

Jack landed near the back as the race was going to begin soon and most of the people were getting ready to race. Spectators were welcomed and placed their bets. Tom ran and met Jack.

"So how bad is it?" Jack asked as Tom came up to him.

Jack put away his X-wing and brought out the black LTD from Men in Black that he would be racing with.

"It's fucked." Tom said. "The asshole who did this knew he would destroy the front of the bike."

Tom handed him the bike, which had shrunk to a model.

"Ok I'll fix it after this race." Jack said.

"Alright thanks bro." Tom said, and then he reached up and pulled the Headset from the face, which made his avatar disappear as he went offline.

Jack entered the car and his perception changed to second person so he could see his vehicle. Other racers went to their respectful starting positions. Jack checked his stats. His car was in top shape. He had entered the twelfth position, and there were eighteen positions to this race. There were many spectators who placed their bets on their clan-mates. Jack revved his engine. A countdown appeared in Jack's Heads up Display.

3

2

1

GO!

They were off. The first obstacles were these walls that were brought up in front of the racers. Several people crashed early on. Some avatars were injured so they needed to apply health packs. Jack veered to the right and left, dodging vehicles and avatars as well as other obstacles that sprung up. There were sharp 90 degree turns. Jack drifted around each turn and followed other players around different obstacles. Huge wheels with spikes started coming up from the road. Flamethrowers spewed flames from the walls around the racetrack. And then, several icons came up saying that there were weapons available. Jack drove through one and received a boost in speed which also made him invincible for a short time.

"Here we go." He said to himself as he pressed a red button that was on the gear shift stick.

There was a sudden boost of speed as Jack transformed his LTD into full speed mode which meant that two boosters came out the back that propelled the car forward. For races like this with obstacles, it was unwise to use this mode unless there was invincibility being used because there were obstacles and other cars and vehicles to think about. Then, the invincibility started counting down in Jack's Heads up Display. He disengaged the boosters and the car transformed back to normal form. He was now in second place. In front of him was someone on a red motorcycle. Jack did a double take.

"That's Artemis." Jack said to himself. "What in the world is she doing here?"

There were more icons up ahead, and Art3mis picked one up. Jack drove through it right after her and picked up an object.

"Flamethrowers?" Jack said. "That's useless unless I get up really close."

Jack then saw it. The end of the race was in view.

"What if…?" Jack pointed the flamethrowers behind him.

He activated it and it drove his car forward. He reengaged the boosters and he started going faster than Art3mis. He drove until he was beside her. Art3mis looked at him. Suddenly, she engaged her special that she had picked up. Tacks erupted from the back of her bike. They were magnetic, and drew to Jack and his LTD. He tried driving faster, but the tacks followed as he passed Art3mis. He was so close to the end. Suddenly, explosions started erupting from behind him. The tacks started making all of the other vehicles combust. A green blast lanced from Art3mis and it slammed into the fire. The fire turned blue and really hot. The flames combined with Jack's flames that were pushing him forward and it leapt into his boosters. Jack dove out of the car and activated a special force shield to protect him. His car exploded and flames surrounded him. Art3mis drove away, winning the race. She left no one alive.

"Was that really Artemis?" Jack asked himself

The flames died down and Jack disengaged his shield. He picked out a black Audi R8 and drove it so that he would win second place in the race. He looked behind him and saw that there were several other players who survived. He won the second place prize and earned enough coins to fix his Men in Black LTD and Tom's motorcycle. He brought out his X-wing and flew towards _Tensa Zangetsu_. He parked in the main hold and parked his X-wing in the place he designated as its spot. He made his way to his workshop and started work on Tom's Ghost Rider motorcycle. He would see Tom the next day at school.

* * *

It was Tuesday, so everyone had to take a break from the OASIS video game. That being said, people would still play other games or they would go out with friends or family. Around 7:30 in the morning, Mark walked to school. His house was only two miles away and he walked to and from school every day by himself. His brother was two years his junior but would walk with his friends. Now as for Tom_001, his real name was Tom Calcio. He was of Italian decent. He was also a special needs kid. He loved watching Wrestle-mania, and wanted to be like Triple H. He did well at gym class, but other subjects were where he had the most trouble. He had an older sister and lived with his mother and step-brother. His father and step-father were both dead. Mark tried to help him, but Tom had a problem concentrating, so it was up to the Teaching Assistants at school to help him. One of their best friends was into Anime and loved different things like InuYasha or Pokemon. He was not a special needs person but was into art. He wanted to one day become a director of some sort. He loved making movies and painting. He had three other siblings and was an older brother as well, similar to Mark. He was bad at gym class though, was kind of chubby and needed to use special skin cream for marks on his face. He also wore glasses like Mark. His name was John Matthews. Rounding out their group was the genius of their grade. His name was Justin Rihaz. He did not have any game systems as his parents did not believe in such devices. He made friends wherever he could. He was constantly trying his hardest to be the best that he could be. Unfortunately, he was quite hefty in size and although he had good morals, he was cast out because he was not cool enough. Of all the people who needed the OASIS, it was Justin. Mark did not have a job per se; however he did want to help his friend out with anything he needed. They would play cards together, playing a game called Asshole. The four friends would play together, and would talk about Television shows like Suits, Game of Thrones, InuYasha, or Bleach. Justin did not look at Anime, and neither did Tom.

Mark believed that if they tried at it, they could become a good clan in the OASIS. However, they needed to apply as much time as they could, and although he would rather play in the OASIS than go to school, he knew that the game would not last forever and could never replace real life. He did not know where, to what college or university he should be going to after High School. For the most part, he only had one or two classes with his friends. He went to Computer Programming with Tom, English and Graphic Design with John; and Criminology with Justin.

"So, what happened in Wrestle-mania yesterday, Tom?" John asked his friend as they sat together to wait for classes to begin in the cafeteria.

"Holy shit, Hercules got up in the owner's face and did a suplex on him." Tom said excitedly. "They fucking went at it, bringing out chairs and shit. And then there was a break and when they came back, they did TLA: Total Lesbian Action."

"How do they show that kind of stuff in the afternoon?" John asked.

"They didn't do anything much." Tom said. "It's like a beauty contest, and the prize gets to kiss one of the girl wrestlers. It was fucking awesome."

"And then what happened?" Justin asked.

"There was a tag-team bout." Tom went on.

"He guys." Mark interrupted. "Sorry Tom, but have you guys ever raced with Artemis before?"

"No." Tom said. "I've never seen her."

"Well right when you finished your race, she went through mine." Mark said. "She won the race man and she was awesome. I came in second."

"Tomorrow, we should get on the OASIS." John said. "Maybe we should meet at your ship?"

"Yeah let's do it."

"You guys spend too much time on that game." Justin said.

"Trust me, it's better than it sounds." Mark said. "You'll see some day, I hope."

* * *

Jack stood in the hangar of the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He checked the time on his Heads-Up Display. Suddenly, a portal opened up in front of him. John Matthews and Tom Calcio appeared together. Apparently they met before coming to Mark / Jack's ship. John's OASIS name was Gadanza. He was a Caucasian male with long shaggy blond hair. His eyes were green, the deepest green you ever saw. He wore a black trench coat with green lining. He also wore black combat boots and navy blue jeans with a gold chain going to one of the pockets. On his back was a Key Blade from the video game _Kingdom Hearts._

"Hey Jack." Gadanza said.

"Yo how's it hanging?" Tom said.

"Good." Jack said to his friends. "I have been looking at the game play from the race that I did the other day when I went up against Artemis. It looks like she was only after easy cash for something bigger."

"What could she possibly want?" Gadanza said. "She already has more cash than anyone in the OASIS."

"It might be something personal that she does not want other people to know about." Jack said. "That or she was just bored and wanted to race."

"Maybe that is it." Tom said. "Why else would she race? Maybe we are just making things harder than they really are. Now why don't we play some C _apture the Flag?_ "

"You guys go ahead." Jack said. "I'm going to see if I can find Artemis to talk to her."

And with that his friends left him. Jack made his way to the bridge of his ship. He went to the captain's chair and sat down. A screen popped up in front of him showing different aspects of the OASIS.

"Locate player." Jack commanded his ship and then spelled out her name. "A-r-t-3-m-i-s."

The various scanners came on and started searching for the user with that name. Jack took a deep breath and waited as his ship did its thing.

"Player Artemis found." The computer on his ship said. "She is currently racing in the Burnout simulator."

"Well look at that, another racing game." Jack said to himself. "When is there going to be another race?"

"According to our calculations, Artemis has a ninety five percent chance of winning the race." The computer said. "And there is a fifty percent chance she might race again, or stop for today. This is her fourth race today."

"Sign me up for the next race." Jack said. "I'll race her and find out what she is doing."

And so, Jack found where the Burnout race was being played. He picked out his Audi-R8 and changed the color to cherry red. He opened a portal and went through it. He landed in fifth place for the race. He picked out his car and climbed into the chase. He revved his engine. At first place, he saw that it was Art3mis in a red corvette. The aim of the race was not only to compete against other racers but they also had to avoid other traffic. Luckily, this was not a game which included fighting so there would be no police intervention or weapons to pick up. It was solely about racing for the hell of it. So they waited for the countdown. Jack saw other racers in their respective places. Jack took a deep breath as the countdown initiated.

And then they were off. Jack veered to his left, slamming into the back of the person in front of him. The crash turned the other car around and then Jack was off in fourth place. It seemed that Art3mis was not paying attention as she was weaving in and out of traffic, avoiding cars to her right and left. She avoided a gasoline truck. In another game, you would think that shooting that vehicle would cause a reaction. No one tried it as they did not want to find out what was going to happen if they did break the rules of the game in the OASIS. Jack went passed the gasoline truck still in fourth place. He weaved in and out of traffic. Luckily, he was in the lane that was going the same way. There was a turn up ahead. Jack drifted around the corner. He witnessed as the player in third place suddenly veered the wrong way and struck a semi-truck. Coins erupted from the crash. Jack opened his door and picked up as many as he could. He then closed his door and started driving away from the crash. He passed the player who was in second place and drove up until he was right beside Art3mis. He looked at her but she did not look back. They both needed to concentrate because there were cars in front of them going slower. Jack saw that Art3mis was going faster than he was. He tried going on the shoulder of the highway that they were racing on however there were cars veering to his side as well as they were trying to dodge Art3mis.

Suddenly, a car veered right in front of Jack. He applied the brakes to try and stop from crashing. He stopped short, and then two racers passed him as Art3mis drove away from him. Jack looked behind and looked for a place where he could get into traffic to drive. He pulled away and looked for the racers who passed him. He drove past several cars but none were the drivers that were in the race. He gritted his teeth.

"Damn it." He said to himself. "I have to win! I have to win!"

Jack pressed on. He then looked ahead and to his surprise one of the racers had crashed. He passed them and did not waste time trying to pick up coins that spilled out onto the racetrack. He passed several more cars, and revved his engine. He drove quickly until he was neck and neck with the second place racer. The avatar in the rival car looked at Jack, and smiled. They turned sharply, trying to veer Jack off the track. Jack was not scared so he bumped into the other racer. He then pressed two red buttons on his steering wheel. The car peeled off, and Jack passed the other racer, who fumed. Jack smiled and he drove until Art3mis was in his sights. He was right behind her. The finish line was in their sights. Art3mis knew how to drive and kept blocking Jack from moving beside her. However, she could not count on the traffic that was driving with them. They both passed the finish line and turned onto a road that was closed off. They waited until the race was fully over and all of the cars had passed the finish line. Jack hopped out of his car, shrunk it to a miniature size, and put it away. He walked up to Art3mis, who also put away her Corvette.

"You are awesome." He said. "Why are you racing so much?"

"Hey thanks for the compliment." She said. "You're the racer from the other day. You came second that day as well."

"Yeah." Jack said, smiling. "I can't believe I'm meeting you Artemis. You're famous."

"Yeah, I know you." She said, smiling. "You're quite the racer. I have also heard that you fix things. I can see from your designation is Jack underscore 100292402. Did you want to meet the others?"

"Yeah!" He said. "I know my friends would want to meet them as well. Can I bring them?"

"Only a couple of friends." Art3mis replied. "We don't need a whole party to come."

"Yeah, there are only a couple of us anyways." Jack said. "How about Friday?"

"Friday's good." Art3mis said. "Meet me at these coordinates."

On Jack's heads up display, a location was put into his system.

"Nice" Jack said. "Thank you so much."

"Okay, see you then." She said, and then she took off her headset and disappeared from the OASIS.

Jack had won $250,000.00. Coming in first, Art3mis had won $500,000. Jack could not wait to tell Tom, Justin and John about what happened to him.

 **GoldDragonZ:** Hey guys, I have not written a story for a long time. I don't know if I have done the novel Ready Player One justice or not. I have only just watched the movie. Please tell me if things are going well or if I need to make changes.


	2. Chapter 2

Ready Player One: Adventures of Jack

Chapter 2

 **GoldDragonZ** : So I'm enjoying writing this story so I will continue. If you want me to stop, please tell me. If you hate this story, feel free to tell me. If you like the story please let me know that as well. Here's to another adventure.

Mark had already told Tom and John about his interaction with Art3mis before shutting down his console for the day. They were elated that they would be meeting such a famous person from the OASIS. Unfortunately, Justin was out of the loop because he did not know anything about the OASIS since he did not have the gaming console to jack into the world.

"I don't see the importance of meeting someone online as being comparable to meeting them face to face." He had told Mark, Tom and John. "I mean, would you not want to meet the actual person behind the fake avatar that they have online?"

"Fuck off Justin." Tom said. "You don't understand. We're going to meet one of the most bad ass ladies ever known."

"Did you ever consider that she might be a he?" Justin said. "You don't know about people these days."

"It doesn't matter." Mark interjected. "We are going to meet the High Five!"

"You guys are hopeless." Justin said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, maybe we can ask them for a console for you, Justin." John said. "Then you could join us playing the game and doing homework together."

"You're a noob John." Tom said. "Who the fuck does homework on the OASIS?"

"Two years ago, schools were virtual because the OASIS made it possible for people to stay at home and learn." Mark said. "The High Five reversed this because they believed that it was better if we interacted in person."

"We all know that." John said. "They want us to interact with each other in real life."

"Yeah." Mark said. "They changed things, forever."

"Hey, what time did they want to meet tomorrow?" Tom asked.

"About Five o'clock," Mark replied. "So are you guys interested or what?"

"No shit we're interested." Tom said.

"Did you want to play _Capture the Flag_ before?"

"Yeah we can play." John replied.

"Yeah we can play." Tom also replied.

"Good luck, guys." Justin said.

* * *

It was 3:20 pm. Mark had eaten something and changed from his uniform to something more comfortable. He went to his dining room where his piano and OASIS console were placed. He started playing the piano, going over the classical pieces that his teacher needed him to practice as he had lessons on Saturday. He played for about forty minutes and then decided it was time for _Capture the Flag._

He jacked into the OASIS. He spawned aboard his ship, the _Tensa Zangetsu._ He searched for Tom_001 and Gadanza and found them on a world with other players who were battling each other. They were standing on the edge of a gorge watching two sides; blue and red fight each other. Red team had a flag and was trying to get it to their base on one side of the gorge. It was against the rules to interfere.

"Open up a portal to Gadanza's position." Jack_100292402 commanded his computer on the _Tensa Zangetsu._

The portal opened up beside his friends. Jack walked through it and was among his friends.

"Yo what's up?" He asked Tom and Gadanza.

"Red team is about to score." Gadanza said.

"That's what your mom said." Tom laughed.

"No Tom, that's what I did to you sister last night." Gadanza said, and Tom swatted at him.

"Asshole." Tom said.

"Retard." Gadanza responded.

"Guys relax." Jack said. "Save it for the other team we're going to be facing."

"There's something wrong with that though." Gadanza said.

"Yeah." Tom said. "We're not part of a clan. We need ten players to join the _Capture the Flag_ game."

"Shit." Jack swore. "Let's go over the roster of people who want to play next."

Jack updated his Heads up Display. He looked and saw that there were five people waiting in line who wanted to play _Capture the Flag_ who were not part of a clan. There were also three clans already ready for the next bout.

"I see that there are five people wanting to play next." Jack told his friends. "That means we _need_ two more players. Any ideas?"

"Hey Tom," Gadanza said. "What's your brother doing?"

"He's working right now." Tom said. "He wouldn't be interested in playing games with us anyways."

"What about your brother or sister, Mark?" Gadanza asked. "I mean Jack."

"I think my bro's out with his friends talking." Jack said. "And my sister does not play shooter games."

"Shit." Gadanza said. "My brothers and sister might want to play. Just wait, let me ask them."

Gadanza reached up and took his console headset off, and his Avatar disappeared. Tom and Jack waited, watching the match that was still going on. Red team had not scored yet. They were fighting hard to do it, but Blue team was making it really difficult. Explosions rang out as blue team had two members firing rocket launchers at Red team. Other members were laying suppressive fire, trying to pin down their enemies. Two members combined together and used coins to use an AT-ST from _Star Wars_. They fired at the enemy who had the Blue Flag. Red laser bolts rained down on the Red Team members as they tried to combat the behemoth. They fired off a few shots from machine guns. They threw hand grenades that had spikes on them. They attached to the AT-ST's legs and exploded. Unfortunately the behemoth stood steadfast on its two legs. It continued firing and was successful in killing the person who held the flag. One of his comrades picked it up and used a temporary spell to make a bubble force shield over them. Suddenly, something began growing inside the bubble.

"No way." Jack said.

The bubble shield disappeared and a T-Rex took its place. Laser bolts lanced out and struck the dinosaur on his jaw. It roared loudly and bit the AT-ST right where the turret for the lasers were and broke it off. This left the AT-ST useless, however someone from inside opened the top hatch and began firing using assault rifle right at the dinosaur, who turned around as fast as it could, using its tail to trip up the AT-ST. The gunner from the hatch fell out. The T-Rex bent down and picked up the Avatar, and swung its head back and forth, killing the Avatar as coins erupted from the body of the Avatar. He then walked forward and transformed into his 'human' form. He took the flag and dashed for the base. Victory was his as he entered the base. And then there was a trumpet sound, signalling the Red Team Scoring and ending the game.

" _Game Over."_ The announcement rang out. " _Ready for next game shortly_."

There was a shifting in the OASIS as everything was reset in the gorge. The flags reappeared in their homes, the Red Flag in the Blue Base, and the Blue Flag in the Red Base. The AT-ST disappeared and any residue from the battles like scorch marks, broken items, or other things disappeared. Just then, Gadanza returned.

"We're out of luck." He said. "No one wants to play with us."

"Shit." Jack said

Gadanza opened a communication channel to the five other people who were not part of Clans. They spoke to each other briefly about playing together and then they chose the blue side. And then, something lucky happened. One of the Blue players decided to get a few other people to play. Blue markers appeared above their heads as they teleported to their base. A ten-person clan appeared across from them at the red side.

"This is really lucky." Jack said to Gadanza and Tom.

"No kidding." Tom said. "So what's the plan?"

"We open a channel to our teammates." And with that, Jack looked at the other Avatars that were playing with him.

One was the Nemesis from _Resident Evil._ They had a double rocket launcher on one arm and a mini-gun on the other arm. One was Master Chief from the _Halo_ franchise and held an assault rifle. One was wearing black armour that read SWAT on the back and they held an assault rifle with a grenade launcher and shotgun outfitted to it. One was a soldier from Mass Effect wearing blue armour and they had various weapons strapped to their back and had a laser-assault rifle as well. One was a Black Garbed Ninja who had two Mac Tens, one per each hand. One was an Avatar that they made to resemble a Spartan from _300_. He held a rocket launcher with a sword strapped to his left hip. On his head he wore a helmet with a visor attached to it. One was Selene from the _Underworld_ franchise and she had Andúril also called the Flame of the West from Lord of the Rings strapped to her back and she was holding a double barrelled shotgun. Gadanza held onto a machine gun which had a knife attached to the barrel. Tom was holding an AA-12 Shot Gun. Jack pulled out a sniping rifle. He had played _Capture the Flag_ before on this map so knew where key places were.

" _Game will commence in one minute."_ The computer said.

"Okay guys, here's the plan." Jack told the nine other players. "We need to place mines at the four doorways to our base. I will take a position in a cave on one of the walls on the side of the gorge. Tom, you use your motorcycle to get to the Red Base as fast as you can. Nemesis, you take a position in front of our base as a goalie. Everyone else, take it to the middle of the map. Lay down suppressive fire to stall the others while Tom tries to get the flag."

"Sounds like a plan." Gadanza said.

They placed mines at each of the openings to the base so if anyone slipped passed Nemesis they would meet with a fiery end. Tom pulled out his _Ghost Rider_ Motorcycle and started the engine. Jack went along one of the walls until he met a cave a few meters up in the air. He used a jet pack and flew into the cave. He put the Jet Pack away and lay down with his sniper rifle out. He looked to the red base and watched the other team. They had pulled out two different mechanical beasts which were similar in construct to the _Mantis_ from _Halo_. It was a clan of similar Avatars wearing similar armour. They were reminiscent of _Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor_ from _Halo_. Two players held Rocket Launchers. One had a 12 gage shot gun. The others had assault rifles with different mods on them. Four were piloting the mechanical beasts which had a mini-gun on one arm, and a rocket launcher on the other. The sound for the beginning of the game sounded off. The teams went into motion.

"Shit," Jack swore. "Tom might not make it because of those two _Mantises._ It looks like they are hanging back though, so I have to concentrate on the others who are coming towards us."

Jack scoped out the field. There were several hills that made sniping difficult. He then saw movement. Without hesitating, he fired. A shield erupted as the cloaking ability fell away. A decloaked Spartan appeared, however they were not dead. Jack fired again, killing his enemy. He then looked for others. In the meantime, Tom quickly drove forward, towards the Red Base to retrieve their flag. The Mantises watched and primed their rocket launchers. They fired heat seeking rockets at Tom, who launched flaming chains forward. They glowed blue, and were hotter than the motorcycle that he rode. The rockets collided with the chains and exploded. Tom drove fast and then leapt off his motorcycle as two more rockets collided with his bike.

"Oh damn it." Jack swore as he looked to where Tom was.

He was surrounded behind enemy lines. Jack made haste and fired at one of the Mantises that was closest to where he was perched. Blue team moved forward over the hills. Red team were trying to get to Tom, who was firing at them with his Shot gun. He had placed a force field up behind him and was firing at the others.

"Damn it Tom." Jack swore.

Jack summoned _Iron Man's Hulk Buster Armour_ and put it on. He flew up to the closest Mantis and blasted away one of the arms. Several of the Red Team looked to Jack and started firing their weapons at him. Tom summoned his motorcycle again, which was slightly damaged but still driveable, and drove quickly to the red base and found that they had not placed mines or anything to protect the flag from the opposing team. Tom grabbed the Flag and ran away from the base. As he was holding the flag, he could not drive his motorcycle. Jack ripped off the mini-gun from the Mantis he was fighting against. Tom ran on the side closest to Jack. Jack aimed one of his repulsor beams at the Mantis cockpit and destroyed it, killing the occupant and they turned into coins that Jack collected. Jack then flew towards Tom. He fired several missiles at the others. Just then, the rest of Blue Team came up and started firing at Red Team. Three fired at the Mantis that was left. Tom climbed aboard Jack's Hulk Buster and they flew back to their base. Tom entered it and they scored. Anyone who died respawned and they started the game again. This time, Jack took point and flew across the field with his Hulk Buster armour. However there were several members of his team already almost half way across the field. One of the Mantises was still operational.

"I gotta take it out." Jack said to himself.

One of the members of Jack's team transformed into the _Tumbler_ from _Batman Begins_. They drove forward to the opposing team's base and fired at the closest opening to make sure there were no mines set. The Mantis aimed and fired at the Tumbler with its Rocket launcher. The Tumbler flipped onto its roof. It blew open a compartment which turned the Tumbler over. It started firing its primary weapon at the Mantis. The Mantis returned fire with its main Gatling gun and rocket launcher. The Tumbler roared forward, dodging explosions caused by the rockets. It used its booster to propel itself forward. It launched a grapnel around one of the legs of the Mantis. It drove passed the Mantis, which tried to swivel and track the Tumbler as it went by. The Tumbler drove around the Mantis twice and tied up the Mantis' legs. The Mantis fell and stopped moving. The Mantis disappeared and a single soldier came out of it, using an assault rifle to battle the Tumbler. The two teams were also battling each other to get to the flags.

Suddenly, there was a shift as one of the players at the opposing team summoned King Kong. The gorge rumbled as the beast roared. Jack summoned all of his missiles within his Hulk-Buster armour and fired them all at King Kong. The beast roared back and started running as fast as it could on its four limbs to try and swat at Jack. Jack used his repulsor beams on his legs to soar into the sky. No matter how much the King Kong tried, it could not touch Jack. Jack fired lasers from his wrist launchers which slammed into the beast's face, blinding the animal. Jack looked up and watched. His team was losing as there was no communication. The opposing team seemed to be making headway. Two members were already fighting Nemesis. Nemesis was firing at one opponent with his mini-gun while the other used a scoped assault rifle to try and blind the monster by shooting out his eyes. He ended up killing the one enemy however the other one succeeded in destroying his eyes. Nemesis roared and started firing at random. The enemy bolted for an entrance into their base, which was behind Nemesis.

KAPOOM! The first landmine went off, killing the enemy instantly. Jack concentrated. He could not help Nemesis so he needed to concentrate on the enemy in front of him. He opened up with his wrist cannon and started firing tank missiles at the huge ape. King Kong roared angrily. Jack started firing his repulsor beams at the massive ape.

Jack went right to the beast and held up King Kong's arms with his own arms. Jack aimed his unibeam chest projector right at King Kong's chest. The animal realized what was about to happen and tried to resist. Jack activated the unibeam, boring right through the animal. It collapsed and transformed to the player that was within it. He died and left coins behind. The Hulk-buster armour ran out of energy and transformed back into Jack's avatar. He pulled out his sniper rifle and looked out towards the terrain. There were battles raging all around him. He ran up one of the largest hills and looked around. It seemed that five of the enemy clan were destroyed. However, six of Jack's team were killed, including Tom.

"Tom, what happened?" He asked.

"Shit got real is what happened." Tom said. "I have to wait to respawn when someone scores."

"Damn it, what about the rest of you?" Jack said, opening up his communication device to include all of the people he was playing with.

"Eyes are shot." Nemesis said.

"I'm taking two of these guys on." Selene said.

"I'm out." The SWAT specialist said.

"I'm taking on one of the Spartans." Gadanza replied.

"Okay." Jack said, disregarding anyone else. "I'm going for the flag."

"Go for it." One of his teammates said.

Jack ran forward. He pulled out a motion tracker and found out where all of his enemies were. One was getting closer to his base. Others were fighting with his team members. Jack ran along the edge of the gorge and pulled out a black motorcycle. He revved the engine and was off, going as quickly as he could to the opposing base. He was spotted by one of the enemies who were fighting one of Jack's comrades. He aimed a rocket launcher; however Jack's teammate took the time to fight against the enemy. The rocket shot forth, and went above Jack. Jack drove as there was an explosion that destroyed some of the wall of the gorge. Jack used his motorcycle to jump over a hill. There were explosions happening elsewhere in the gorge. Jack scanned the base in front of him. He tried to see if there were any mines or any booby traps. So far, there was nothing to indicate that there were mines or anything that could destroy him. So he entered the base and found the flag. He then grabbed it and dashed out of the base. He ran to the left where no one was fighting. He then took off.

"Damn," He said, breathlessly. "I need to run more."

He opened up a channel to talk to the other players on his team.

"Hey guys, I have the flag." He told them. "Keep the other team preoccupied so that I can get it done."

"Guys," Nemesis said. "I have bad news."

"They got passed you?"

"Yeah, I heard them and saw them through the radar but I could not shoot them."

"Gadanza, you're up." Jack said. "Take him out!"

"I'm a little busy." Gadanza said. "I'm facing one of the Spartans and they are not giving up. I'm already out of ammo for my machine gun."

"Use a grenade or something." Tom said.

Tom was watching the match but could not help do anything else but comment on what happened.

"I'm using a pistol right now." Gadanza said.

"Here, take some ammo." Jack said, transferring 200 bullets to Gadanza.

"Nice!" Gadanza pulled out his assault rifle one more time and started firing at will.

Jack pulled out his two Desert Eagle Hand Guns and looked around while running as fast as he could. Then, a Spartan from the other team came into view. Jack started firing his weapons. His shots rang out but did not find purchase on his enemy. He put away his pistols as soon as he could, and then did a somersault as the enemy fired at him using a carbine. They missed him as well, and then Jack pulled out his sniper rifle. He aimed and fired. The shield around his enemy flared up and went out. Jack pulled out a small machine gun and fired at his enemy.

Coins erupted from the enemy's body. Jack put away his weapon and pulled out the black sword that was on his back next to the flag. He slashed at the enemy, who leapt back. Jack put away his sword and pulled out the sniper rifle once more. He held his breath, aimed and fired, making the enemy's head explode with coins. The body transformed into coins, which Jack collected. Jack activated a cloaking spell and he was invisible to the other players, including his own team. He ran as fast as he could, trying to use this precious time that he had. He only had thirty seconds until time on his cloaking spell ran out. He ran until he was one third of the gorge away from his base. He took out a hunting rifle of his own design that he modified to be very precise over a long distance. He saw Nemesis and ran towards him. Then there was an explosion. Jack fell to the ground, letting go of the flag. There appeared a counter over the flag marking that if no one picked up the flag in thirty seconds, it would respawn back at the other base. Jack felt his right arm go numb as coins fell out. Someone had succeeded in wounding him. He found that he could not move his right arm. He pulled out a desert eagle pistol with his left hand and made his way to the flag, and the counter continued counting down. He picked it up and put it on his back. Three Spartans made their way to Jack. There was no one on his team there to help him. Nemesis was close, but without the ability to see, he was useless. Jack sucked in air as dread filled him.

"I'm going to enjoy tea-bagging your ass." One of the Spartans said.

Jack opened up his Heads-up Display, looking for spells or technology that could give him an advantage in this instance. He pulled out a small device from his belt and threw it down. A bright light blinded his enemies. Jack grabbed the knife from his left boot and ran up to the closest Spartan, and slammed his blade into the Spartan's neck, he forced the Spartan to go down, and he opened fire with the Spartan's own Assault Rifle on the other two Spartans. One of their shields went down. Jack threw his knife at the Spartan who took it in the right eye, or rather where their eye would have been. They exploded into coins. Jack grasped the Spartan he was on top of and reached into his throat, and ripped it from the Spartan, who exploded into coins as well. The last Spartan aimed his assault rifle at Jack. All of a sudden, there was a guttural roar as a metal panther roared. He launched at the Spartan, taking him down. The Panther mauled the Spartan.

Wasting no time thanking his teammate, Jack made sure he was still holding his flag. He made his way to his base with the flag.

 _Incoming Communication._ The words appeared in Jack's heads up Display.

"Go for Jack 100292402." Jack said, saying his name one word and then one number at a time.

"Hey Jack." Art3mis said. "We're ready early, and wondered if you guys would be interested in meeting now."

"Shit," Jack said. "We are in the middle of a game, but I'll ask my friends about what they think."

"Go ahead." Art3mis said.

Jack muted the communication to Art3mis and then opened a channel to Tom and Gadanza.

"Guys, Artemis is wondering if we are ready to meet the High Five now." He told them. "What do you think? Should we end this game?"

"It's going to cost us." Gadanza said.

"Don't worry." Jack said. "I'll pay both the people who are playing on our side and the other team."

"Do you have enough coins for that?" Tom asked.

"Yeah don't worry." Jack replied, and then he opened up a channel to all of the players of the _Capture the Flag_ game that they were all playing.

"Hey everyone." He began. "Something has come up and we need to stop playing."

"That means your team forfeits the match." One of the Spartans said. "We win the prize."

The prize was one million coins for the winning team. This made them really happy.

"What the hell man?" The team member who was wearing SWAT armour asked Jack, running up to the man.

"Here, I'll pay all of you one hundred thousand coins each." Jack replied. "That's as much as we would get if we won."

"That's good, but we were doing so awesomely." The player in the Nemesis skin also said.

Jack looked at his inventory on his Heads Up Display and paid out 100, 000 coins to his seven co-players.

"So what, you're not going to pay us?" Tom mused.

"Hey I didn't tell the others that we are meeting with the High Five." Jack said sternly. "That should be a treat in itself."

"Yeah, so where are we meeting them?" Gadanza asked.

"Aech has a chat room called _The Garage,_ also known as _The Basement_." Jack said, having been invited to the chat room by Art3mis. "They gave us access to the chat room. We need to get to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ first."

Jack opened a portal. He and his two friends walked through the portal. They were on board the ship that was Jack's personal home on the OASIS. Usually, the team would download weapons on the ship and then go play games. The _Tensa Zangetsu_ would charge weapons that needed replenishing in energy. The spaceship also spent Jack's coins in order to get ammunition. He shared it willingly with his friends. He looked for an extra arc generator and placed it within his Hulk Buster armour to power it up. His friend stocked up on ammunition.

"Did you guys have clothes you wanted to change into?" Jack asked his friends.

"What's wrong with what I have on?" Tom asked.

"Dude," Gadanza said. "We're about to meet the best players in the world. Have a little respect."

Gadanza changed his clothing to appear like a detective wearing a suit underneath a trench coat and fedora that matched the colour of his coat. Tom refused to change. Jack looked through the clothing and gear that he had amassed and pulled out a suit that he liked. It was a black dress shoes, black dress pants, a white tunic, a black blazer and a red bow tie. His combed out his hair and summoned his knife in its holster along his left leg. He pulled out a pistol and put it in a holster that was underneath his blazer. He picked out sunglasses that suited the look and he looked at his avatar from different vantage points. He then returned to first person mode. He looked like an Indian Gangster.

"Okay, let's go." He told his friends as he opened a portal to Aech's chat room, _The_ _Basement_.

They walked through the portal and found that they were in a huge room. In the middle was _The Iron Giant_ which was in two huge pieces. The hips and legs were one piece while the abdomen, head and arms were another piece. There were five Avatars waiting for them.

"Hey." Jack said, waving. "My name is Jack."

"Hey, welcome to _The Basement._ " Aech, a tall orc-cyborg said. "If you need anything to be fixed, I can do it here for a charge of course. This is my home, where we come to chat and do other awesome things."

"These are my friends, Tom and Gadanza." Jack introduced his friends.

"Hello." Parzival said, rising to meet the guests of _The Basement_. "I take it you all have questions about what Artemis has been doing on the racing circuits."

"Yeah," Jack said. "She keeps kicking ass. Is there a reason, or is she just trying to make more money even though she has a lot already?"

"The High Five does not really come to the OASIS anymore." Shoto said, as he introduced himself to the new friends. "You are right to question our motives, but you are not in any position to order us around. The reason you are here is because Artemis wants more comrades. For some time, we were looking to expand our clan to take up more players. We want to know more about you. Jack 100292402, your name is all over the OASIS. You fix things like Aech aboard your spaceship."

"Yes." Jack said.

"I believe you can help Aech build something special." Art3mis said. "We are after one player in particular. He is a hacker who has bypassed much of the games that were originally created by Halliday and Morrow. His Avatar name is Lynx. I believe he is after another Easter egg that Halliday had created but wanted only the best players to find. He's not from America. I believe he's racing for another egg so I'm racing to find out more about him and find the egg before he does. This time, there are no rules. There are no scoreboards. This egg is something else entirely."

"But you guys have everything." Tom said. "Why would Halliday make another Easter egg and not tell anyone about it?"

"The same reason why people started leaving Easter Eggs in the first place." Aech said.

"What are you guys doing about it?" Jack asked Aech, Parzival, Shoto, and Daito. "Are you racing as well?"

"Yes, we are." Shoto said. "I'm racing spaceships."

"I'm racing on foot." Daito said.

"I'm modifying our vehicles." Aech said.

"I'm doing research at Anorak's virtual archives to see if there are any clues," Parzival said.

"What would you have us do?" Jack asked. "Why did you invite me here?"

"We need your ship." Parzival said. "People who you helped in the past have told us that you can track people, is that true?"

"I can only track people who have won games." Jack replied. "Are you saying you want to track this Lynx person?"

"And build a special item." Aech replied. "We need your help. Your friends can also race with us as well."

"Sounds like fun." Tom said.

"We do have another friend who does not have console to get onto the OASIS." Gadanza said. "He might be a good help to us if he was to get one."

"Yeah, but then he would have to start playing ASAP." Parzival said. "He would begin at level one where we are all above that."

"That's the price you guys need to pay in order for us to help you." Jack replied. "Let our friend get a console and we help find this Lynx person."

"What about the Easter Egg?" Art3mis asked. "You don't want a share in that?"

"Our friend joining us is more important." Jack said.

"Now hold on Jack," Gadanza said. "Let's not be too excited. I want Justin to play with us as well, but what if this Easter egg is something better?"

"Halliday had left everything to The High Five." Jack responded, and then turned to the High Five. "Maybe we should think about things then get back to you."

" _The Basement_ will be open to you guys." Aech said. "You can come here to find us whenever you want."

"Alright thanks." Jack said. "Just to let you guys know it's crazy for you to invite us here. You guys are awesome. Thank you for doing that for us."

"You guys are awesome as well." Parzival said.

"We will see you soon." Jack said, and then he, Tom and Gadanza entered a portal and left _The Basement_.

 **GoldDragonZ:** I don't know about you guys, but I like writing this story. If you enjoy the story, that's just bonus for me. If you find something wrong, please tell me.


	3. Chapter 3

Adventures of Jack

Chapter Three

 **GoldDragonZ:** I like the story. It's based on me and a few of my friends. If you don't like the story, that's fine. If you like it, then that's awesome.

Jack, Gadanza and Tom were on the bridge of the _Tensa Zangetsu_.

"What do you think?" Tom asked. "Are you going to help the High Five?"

"Are you sure you don't want the Easter egg?" Gadanza asked.

"Justin needs this." Jack replied. "We need to get him to play. We can help him level up."

"Yeah, but I still want to know what's in the egg." Tom said.

"It looks like they are more interested in you Jack," Gadanza said. "We are just your lackeys."

"Yeah, they don't give a two shit flying fuck about me and John." Tom said. "They only think that you and Aech can make something that can catch the hacker."

"Yeah, but you guys are my friends." Jack replied. "I want you guys to work with me."

"For Justin's sake, maybe we should help them." Gadanza said. "They can help us since they are the richest people in the OASIS."

"Yeah, for Justin's sake." Jack said.

"Okay fine." Tom replied, but he was still kind of skeptical. "Let's do it."

* * *

The computer was linked to the OASIS. Vladislav Volkovskis input several commands into his computer. He looked at various races that were going on. Halliday had hid this new Easter egg too well. There was nothing he could do as people kept beating him at races. One was Art3mis, who kept getting first place. The High Five were all meddling in his plans. He did not know how they knew about this Easter egg, but they did. Now he needed something special in order to beat them. But where could he find it? He needed to ask someone else knew much about racing vehicles.

The question was who.

Vladislav was known on the OASIS as _Lynx_. He knew how to bend the rules of the system. He knew how to command the world to grant him many special items and speeds for his vehicles. He had studied other people who played the game and followed their example. He was one of the few people who won two keys for the main Easter egg that Halliday had left after his death. He had failed at completing the last challenge to get the last key. He was livid that Parzival was the only person to achieve the last goal and achieve the key to open the gate. He had wanted to beat it himself. He had his own chat room where he kept all of his gadgets, spells, clothing and vehicles. He had one friend that he usually played with named _Tridosk_. They had gone to school together. Tridosk's real name was Lewis Rogers. They were really skilled players and usually beat whoever they were up against. That was especially the case for Lynx. But the High Five were something else entirely. The lived to play games and excelled at it. And then they made the stupid rules where the OASIS would be closed every Tuesday and Thursday to allow people to live their lives in the real world. This made it necessary for people to go to normal jobs and school to bide their time. Lynx worked as a salesman and also drove an armoured truck during his daily life. At night, he was _Lynx:_ _The Game Bender._ His Avatar was War- Machine and could summon different technologies from different content like video games, comics, or movies. Tridosk's Avatar was a reptilian humanoid. His main weapon attached to his hip was Robocop's pistol, the Auto 9 which was built from a Beretta 93R. He had greens scales and orange eyes with black slits for irises. On his back was Spawn's Ax called Agony. His armour was yellow and white. He had grenades strapped to the bottom of his uniform on his legs as well. He had three toes on each foot, and three fingers on each hand. He also had claws on all of his limbs. His teeth were razor sharp and white. His tongue flicked in and out of his mouth every so often.

"What race is next?" Tridosk hissed to Lynx. "We've tried everything."

"We have only spaceships left." Lynx said. "I have picked my ship."

"Is that really the ship you want to race with?" Tridosk asked as he spotted the ship that Lynx was going to use.

It was an alien ship from _Independence Day_. However, there were several modifications added to it. It had yellow racing stripes appended to its hull. Also, there was a cat face painted on the hull to the front.

"It's the best thing that I have." Lynx said. "I upgraded the weapons and the boosters as well as the shields. Everything is pro. I'm no scrub noob."

"Nice." Tridosk hissed. "Maybe I should race as well."

"What ship do you have?" Lynx asked, interested and curious about what his friend would be piloting.

"I have a black and white _TIE Interceptor_."

"Nice."

"When's the race?"

"It'll start in a few days, if my data is complete."

He started his virtual computer. It had been on, computing the likelihood of when the next race would be to find the Easter egg.

* * *

Jack_100292402 (Mark Patel) had a normal day just going to school, talking to friends and thinking about the races that he needed to be a part of in order to find the Easter egg. He reached his home in record time, however it was a Thursday and the OASIS would be closed for the day. He searched his fridge for something to eat. He pulled out something that was left over from the previous day and put it in the microwave. He then flopped on the couch and waited for his food to be ready. He thought about what riches would be behind the Easter egg that Halliday had made. How did the High Five and Lynx find out about the Easter egg to begin with? It was a question that was not easily answered. He waited for his brother and sister to come home. When they did, he told them about what was going on. His brother was thrilled at the prospect of winning something. His sister did not race so she pouted.

"Hell yeah I want to race and win." Mark's brother said.

Mark's brother's name was Rodney Patel. His sister's name was Alexandra Patel. Alexandra was interested in fashion, so she only hung out with other people in the OASIS who liked dressing up and making costumes of their own design. She was also interested in Makeup as well. She was seven years younger than Mark. This means she was ten years old. She was part of a huge clan that were interested in similar things that she was interested in. She was very famous as she had an eye for beautiful things. Her Avatar was a pink haired princess that wore a light orange summer dress. She also wore high-heel shoes that would have costed hundreds of dollars in the real world. Her skin colour was tanned. She was a very beautiful woman on the OASIS. The OASIS was designed to weed out those who were not the appropriate ages. It asked certain questions that only adults could possibly know. There were people who were honest about their age as well. Although her Avatar was beautiful, she could not go to certain places to meet men who were significantly older than her as they might prey upon her. That being said, Alexandra was not concerned in the slightest about getting a boyfriend at the time, because after all, she was only ten years old. Alexandra's name on the OASIS was M3rc3d3s.

Rodney was part of a clan that included his friends and several other people that he knew from other countries. He was interested in combat ranging from firefights to martial arts. He was the best of the best, but followed the rules to a Tee. His Avatar was an Indian Male wearing Blue and black armour similar to Mass Effect N7 Armour. He had short black hair with navy blue highlights. On his hip was a pistol similar in design to the pistol from _Halo: Combat Evolved._ On his back there was a small grenade launcher, an AA-12 shotgun, and an assault rifle similar to _Halo: Combat Evolved_ in design. Over his eyes was Ray-Ban Sunglasses that had reflective lenses. Rodney's name in the OASIS was Tankor_117. Similar to Mass Effect, he had bionic/telekinetic powers in the OASIS. There was a limit to how much time he could take to use his powers. He also had a force field permanently applied to his armour that he could control. When in battle, he could activate it. When he was just palling around with his friends, he did not need to use it.

Both of his siblings had access to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and they could use anything that Mark had on board his ship. He did not want to become part of a clan so he did not let them bring anyone else on board. Alexandra had her own room on the ship where she stored dresses, wigs, shoes, pants, shirts, jackets, and anything else she created or bought. Rodney had weapons and different modifications for different weapons. He also had his own fleet of vehicles that he might need. Mark was allowed to borrow things from his siblings as well. His sister however, did not make clothes for men, so he was out of luck in that side of things, but he would often ask her about clothing choices that he would be making if he needed to go somewhere in the OASIS that required him to wear something different.

However, this was bigger than himself. Finding the new Easter egg required a group effort. Mark decided that he needed to tell his siblings about the High Five and Lynx. So he waited for his siblings to come home. First his sister came in. He fixed her something to eat as well. He then waited for his brother to come home. Finally, half an hour later, Rodney came in.

"Yo Markey." Rodney said playfully. "Hey, Alexi."

"Sup Rod." Mark said. "Guys, I have something to tell you."

And so, Mark began to tell his siblings about the Easter egg that Halliday hid on one of the racing tracks that he had hidden really well. He told them about the hacker named Lynx and how the High Five was against him because of how he bent the rules of the OASIS.

"Why tell us if they don't want a lot of people knowing about this?" Alexandra asked. "I'm not into racing either."

"I can't keep things from you guys." Mark said. "You guys are important to me."

"Okay, so when is the next race?" Rodney asked.

"The _Tensa Zangetsu_ is figuring out the logical next step would be." Mark replied. "It's only a matter of time before we are told when it is. The High Five are using their resources as well to determine the location of the Easter egg."

"Good luck guys." Alexandra said, before excusing herself to wash up her dish with a sponge and soap. "I have homework to do."

"Yeah, me too." Rodney said.

"Okay." Mark was left in the living room with his thoughts.

Did he do the right thing by telling his siblings about the new Easter egg no one heard of besides this _Lynx_ person and the _High Five_?

* * *

School was boring, but his friends were hyper because they would find out about what race they would need to participate in so that they could find the Easter egg. Justin could not care less.

"We're going to win the egg." Tom said. "We're doing it for you, Justin."

"You guys don't have to do it." Justin said. "I like being in the Real World. What is there in the OASIS that I can't get here?"

"You have no idea!" John said. "Mark has his own ship with robot servants."

"You can watch movies, play games, dance, do homework, and other things in the OASIS." Mark said. "You can literally do anything and everything."

"Okay, if you guys think it's a good idea, I'll get one." Justin said. "The only problem is I don't have money to buy one yet."

"We'll think of something." Mark replied.

* * *

Mark hurried home. He ate something, and then did some homework. He needed to do it because he did not want to be left behind in school. He then changed his clothes into the X-1 suit that let him feel everything that happened in the OASIS. He turned on his Console and put on the Head set over his eyes. His Heads up Display turned on, and he chose to spawn on the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He looked at his computer and there was a message from Parzival. He opened the message.

"Hey Jack," Parzival said. "We think we found where the next race is going to be. Your ship is really close to it. I'm sending you the coordinates now. It's a race between spaceships."

Attached to the message was the coordinates to the final race that Lynx would be part of. Jack opened his computer on board his ship and it told him something similar. He then opened a communication feed to talk to John/Gadanza, his brother Tankor_117 and Tom_001. He told them about where the race would be held. His brother was not home as of yet so he could only leave a message. His other friends however were available. The race was going to start. His brother finally entered their home and rushed to his console, turning it on. He entered the OASIS and read the message, spawning on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_.

"What are you going to use?" Jack asked Tankor.

"I'm going to use _The Batmobile_ from _Batman Beyond_ _,_ " Tankor replied. "I've modified it so that it could fly in space. What ship are you going to use?"

"I'm going to use my trusty X-wing." Jack replied. "I've modified it to go faster than before."

"Nice." Tankor said. "Let's meet the others."

* * *

Tankor, Jack, Gadanza and Tom met at the starting line. They found that the High Five were there in ships of their own. Art3mis was in a red ship similar in design to _Spike Spiegel_ 's ship from _Cowboy Bebop_ the _Swordfish II_. Parzival and Aech were co-piloting _The_ _Nebuchadnezzar_ from the Matrix Trilogy. Daito and Shoto co-piloted the Starfighter _Gunstar_ from the _Last Starfighter._ Lynx was at the starting line with his ship from _Independence Day_. Tridosk was there as well with his _TIE Interceptor_. There were other players there as well piloting different ships. There were players piloting the _Millennium Falcon_ , _Serenity,_ _The Outlaw Star,_ and others. Gadanza was piloting an orange _Wraith_ from _StarCraft._ Tom was piloting an _UNSC_ _C-709 Longsword Interceptor_ from _Halo_ : _Combat Evolved_. For the race, you were not supposed to use weapons of any kind including mines, missiles or laser bolts. So, Jack made sure to place all of the energy from his quad lasers to his engines so that he would go faster. He revved his engine so hear and feel the vibration of the vessel. His R2 unit beeped several times. Jack waited and saw the countdown in his Heads-Up Display.

" _I hope you guys are ready."_ Parzival messaged Jack, Tom, and Gadanza. " _We need to see what Lynx is going to do. I think he knows what needs to be done to get the Easter egg."_

"Roger that." Jack said.

The countdown began. And then the ships were off, peeling away as fast as they could all go. The raceway opened up with bright lights to the right and left. It looked like they were going through space very quickly. They went through a wormhole that opened in front of them. Clouds of dust flew past them. Lynx was in the front. He opened up a compartment in the back of his ship. Bright light shone out behind him, blinding most the other players.

"If he thinks that's going to be enough, then he's got another thing coming." Jack spoke to himself. "R2, scan the space in front of us. You can be our eyes."

"Yes sir." The message sprawled on one of the screens that were in the cockpit.

The robot stationed just behind Jack scanned the environment. It knew when to turn and adjusted the controls for Jack. Even though he could not see, his R2 unit could. He also witnessed as there was a sharp turn just up ahead. He pulled back to adjust his steering and also had to dodge as two ships slipped past him, crashing into the edge of the track. Jack turned sharply, after Lynx did. Somehow, the other racers were also compensating for their lack of vision. Eventually the bright light dimmed and they were able to see again. Jack pushed the throttle and witnessed the two front ships, Lynx and Art3mis do battle against each other. They rammed into each other, Lynx on the right, and Art3mis on the left. They were fighting to get ahead of each other. Jack snuck up on them, and then he was overshadowed by Parzival and _The_ _Nebuchadnezzar._ He pulled back, giving the ship a wide berth. He did not want to get in the way of Parzival and Aech. The front gun turret opened up. Lead slugs rammed into the back of Lynx's ship, however disappeared in green sparks as they fell against the energy shields that protected the ship.

"How does that make sense?" Jack asked himself. "He could ram into the other ship and not activate his shields? This guy is truly a great player and perhaps a master hacker. I hope Parzival and Aech know what they are doing, breaking the rules like this."

Jack then decided that he needed to concentrate on winning the race. He told his R2 unit to make all his energy be put into his engines. Then, the track started to shift and turn. Tom slammed into the wall, and his ship exploded killing him. Jack started sweating profusely. He had to pull his ship back and watch as several more players crashed. He turned right and left following _The Nebuchadnezzar_ closely, veering right and left with the space track. And then, Jack became aware that on the right and left there were images from Halliday's life. There were television shows and movie clips that Halliday liked. And then they saw it; a race. Lynx veered right and his ship slammed into the clip that he saw. Parzival and Aech on board The _Nebuchadnezzar_ were travelling too fast, and overshot the clip. Next was Art3mis' ship the _Swordfish II;_ she went through the clip. Next, Jack went through the clip as well. And then, for some reason, the clip stopped playing and other players could not join them. The other racers presumed that they perished and gave it no second thought as they strove to finish the race.

Lynx steered his ship with precision that he could muster. He swooped to the left, and then to the right and barrel rolled. His ship was very advanced as he made modifications and based the technology on the _Independence Day_ type of ship. Jack followed Art3mis closely and had great reflexes. Jack had his R2 unit mapping out the track that they were inside of. And then, there was a wormhole. It sucked in the three players and they were transported to another place in the OASIS. It was a secret place unknown to anyone else. The world used gravity to suck the three ships down onto the surface. Jack tried to pull away, but could not. He opened up a communication line to Art3mis.

"Hey, Artemis." He said. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, it's incredible, isn't it?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's something else." Jack replied. "I guess we're touching down on that world?"

"Yeah." She said.

They travelled down to the world that Halliday had secretly made within the OASIS and the race they had participated in. The gravity well brought them down gently. They made it through the atmosphere down to the small world. Lynx, Jack, and Art3mis all landed almost at the same time. There was a cave in front of them. Lynx leapt out of his ship, bringing up a M249 to bear on the two comrades.

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked Jack and Art3mis.

"We're here for the Easter egg." Jack replied, pulling out both Desert Eagle pistols to bear on Lynx. "We're here to stop you."

"Why the fuck are you stopping me?" Lynx seethed.

"You're breaking the rules to get what you want." Art3mis chimed in.

"Oh, so it was not against the rules for Parzival to use an extra life when everyone else was destroyed to get the last key for the Easter egg?" Lynx asked. "It wasn't against the rules for you to share the information to get the keys for yourselves and forget the rest of us. You guys are full of shit."

"Whatever it is, why don't we split it among the three of us?" Jack asked. "We all came here around the same time."

"You guys are using algorithms to find out where the Easter egg was." Lynx said. "I know because I did the same thing. We're all breaking the rules here. But, I'm the only one getting the egg."

He began firing at Jack and Art3mis. They dodged, ducked and leapt behind their ships. Jack pulled out his Optimus Primal skin and entered the Maximal skin. He pulled out his two double barrelled weapons in his forearms and aimed them at Lynx. He began firing. Lynx was firing at Jack, but he needed to hide because his Avatar was also taking damage from Jack and his Optimus Primal skin. Lynx used a grenade that blinded Art3mis and Jack with light. Jack activated two missile launchers from his back, and took aim. He fired at Lynx's ship, but the missiles collided with the ship's shields. Lynx came from behind the ship, and used his War Machine armour, pulling out his massive Proton Cannon that he downloaded from a _Capcom Versus Marvel_ modification. He fired a huge plasma bolt that slammed into Jack, turning him around. Jack dropped to the ground. His Heads up Display indicated that he had been critically injured. And then, Art3mis leapt over Jack, firing a shotgun at Lynx. Lynx used his repulsor boosters on his legs and flew up. He used repulsor beams from his hands to fly over the ships and his two opponents. Art3mis and Jack pulled back, and aimed their weapons at Lynx. They fired but he was too fast. He fired a weapon on his left arm, destroying Jack's missiles, and used advanced shielding to take the blunt of the damage from Art3mis' attacks. He activated _Darth Maul_ 's duel bladed _light-sabre_ from _Star Wars: The Phantom Menace._ Jack put away his weapons, and took out two swords from his back holsters. He started slashing relentlessly at Lynx. Lynx activated his shoulder cannon and blasted at Jack, who took it right on the chest yet again. He used the _light-sabre_ and tried to eviscerate Jack. Jack blocked it easily using one sword, and tried to break Lynx's weapon using his other one. Lynx ducked and immediately put the sabre away. He aimed his two arm cannons at Jack. Jack opened up his two cannons from his back. They fired almost simultaneously, causing an explosion.

Art3mis pulled out her motorcycle and made her way into the cave while Lynx and Jack were preoccupied. Lynx could not go without Jack attacking him in the Optimus Primal skin. Art3mis entered the most inner sanctum of Halliday, also known in the OASIS as _Anorak_. He rose out of ashes in front of Art3mis. He rose to eight feet tall and looked upon her with a smile.

"Ahh." He said. "You have found an Easter egg I have hidden within the OASIS."

"Hey," Art3mis said. "I still have a few questions. Why did you hide this egg from everyone?"

"In the beginning of creating video games, creators hid eggs that no one knew about." Anorak said. "This is the first of several eggs that I have hidden. It is up to the best players to figure out where they are."

"What do I win?" she said as she picked up an egg that was at Anorak's feet.

"Unlimited ammunition for your weapons." Anorak said. "You will need to fight your way to the second Easter egg that is out there in the OASIS."

"Will other people be able to get the unlimited ammunition?" Art3mis asked.

"Only two others can receive this egg."

"So it is for Lynx and Jack then." Art3mis realized.

"If that is all, you may leave." Anorak said. "The other players will receive their gifts."

Art3mis bowed humbly to the creator of the OASIS' avatar and left the cave via her motorcycle. She made it outside to witness the destruction of Jack's X-wing and his R2 unit. Jack had used his jets to fly above the battlefield. He was angry, but he could not show it. He unleashed a volley of blasts from his shoulder cannons and his blasters from his forearms to blow up Lynx's ship however, the green force field was too powerful. Lynx also flew up to match the position that Jack was. Jack aimed all four of his weapons at Lynx, who supplied the massive proton cannon. They were about to fire when a flare flew up between them. They both looked down towards Art3mis, who motioned to both of them to come down.

"Guys." She said, opening up a communication channel to both Lynx and Jack_100292402. "We've won."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"Only we three can have the Easter egg." She replied. "Talk to Anorak yourselves."

They flew down to Art3mis, putting their weapons away.

"He said we would need the winnings from this challenge to find the next Easter egg." Art3mis explained. "It's a battle that we need to fight."

"I don't need your help." Lynx sneered. "I'm not a noob like you."

"It looks like Artemis won the egg first without anyone's help." Jack rebutted. "She did not need you or anyone to tell her where to go."

"You're a noob." He replied. "You followed me. If it wasn't for me, neither of you would be here."

And then, a warning appeared on Jack's heads up display. He activated the communication. It was from his computer on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_.

"Sir?" The Artificial Intelligence said. "We have just found that a new world has opened up in the OASIS. It was hidden at first, but now it is open. Players are now going to the world to see what they can find out."

"Send out a probe to see what can be found." Jack ordered. "I will be on board in a minute."

Jack landed beside Art3mis, and came out of his _Optimus Primal_ skin. He was wearing his red and black armour, and his hair was retied in the top knot. Lynx also landed beside them, but it seemed that his avatar was in fact _War Machine_.

"My computer has found something." Jack told Art3mis and Lynx. "A new world has opened up. That is where the next Easter egg will be. Only we three have what it takes after finding the first Easter egg."

"Fuck that," Lynx said. "I only have one person that I work with, and he's better having my back than you two."

And with that, Lynx went into the cave. He spoke to Anorak.

"Yo," Lynx said to the figure. "I'm here for the Easter egg."

"Ahh." He said. "You have found an Easter egg I have hidden within the OASIS."

"So I take it that we need what you are giving us in order to get to the next egg."

"Yes, you are certainly right. And you must also use something that flies to get there."

"No kidding." And with that, Lynx took the next egg.

Lynx turned away and walked out. He was not too eager to meet the creator of the OASIS. Jack and Art3mis waited for Lynx to come out. He was steaming angry and did not waste time talking. He walked right passed the two allies and entered his ship. He took off.

"I don't think he's going to let us help him." Jack said.

"Should we help him?" Art3mis asked. "He's been bending the rules."

"So have I." Jack replied. "I used my spaceship, the _Tensa Zangetsu_ to find out where Lynx would be racing next. My computers on board my ship also let me know that a new world was found after we found this Easter egg."

"Hmm." Art3mis replied. "You're right. You need to stop bending the rules. It's not fair to the rest of us."

"If it was against the rules, Morrow would have said something." Jack said. "Unless of course he does not have access to the OASIS anymore."

"No he still has access and knows much about what is going on. You need to be careful, Jack."

"I know. I guess it's my turn to get the Easter egg."

With that, Jack turned away from Art3mis and entered the cave.

"Ahh." Anorak said. "You have found an Easter egg I have hidden within the OASIS."

"Halliday." Jack said, bowing. "It's an honour to meet you. Thank you for making this program for us. Is there any problem with me using a ship to find things?"

"You're talking about doing something that other players do not know how to do." Anorak said. "It is well in the scope of the game. You can do almost anything in this world. It does not matter if I think it is okay. You have to remember that you are playing with other people, and whatever you are doing has an impact on them. Become part of a group that is bigger than yourself. Here, take this egg. You will need it for the next challenge that I have placed in the OASIS."

"Thank you, James Halliday."

"You are most welcome."

With that, Jack left the cave, and Anorak turned to ash. Jack met Art3mis and held up the egg.

"It looks like we need to work together to get the other egg." Jack said. "When do you want to do this?"

"I think Lynx is going to try it himself first." Art3mis said. "We can use your ship to follow his actions."

"I thought you guys were against bending the rules."

"We are, but it seems that this guy is something else, and we need to be prepared to do anything if he becomes a threat."

"What do you think he's after?"

"He's probably after something after Parzival won the egg that he shared. We can't know that for sure. Let's see what he needs. In the meantime, do you need a lift?"

"I would love one. My ship was destroyed in my fight with Lynx."

"I saw that."

So Jack went up to the burnt wreckage of his ship, and pressed a button on the side of it. It turned into a miniature version of itself. Jack put it away. And then they were off to meet the others.

* * *

Lynx fumed as he entered his Chat room. Tridosk was already there, looking over his TIE Interceptor. He had come in third place in the race, after looking back to see where Lynx had disappeared. He had to make up the position in the race and dodge other players who were not driving the proper vehicles. Parzival and Aech came in second, and another player had come first.

"I did it." Lynx said

"Oh hey." Tridosk greeted his friend. "Did you get the Easter egg?"

"Of course I did." Lynx replied. "But we have a major problem. It seems that two other people who were working together got the Easter egg as well. We need to move quickly. Clean up when you're done."

With that, Lynx exited the OASIS by pulling off his headset. He turned on his computer and went over everything that had happened in the OASIS. His computer indicated that a new world had appeared. He hacked into the OASIS and placed a force-field over the world. Only he could enter it now. Satisfied, he made new plans on what he would be doing later. He hacked into his account, copied the coding for the unlimited ammunition and applied the same coding to other things. He now copied the codes so that he could have unlimited shields, unlimited endurance and other unlimited things. He smiled. The next Easter egg would be his and his alone.

* * *

Art3mis opened up the back of her ship, the _Swordfish II_. It opened up to a passenger seat that Jack sat in and strapped himself into the ship. Art3mis lifted off and they flew high into the upper atmosphere. Jack looked back at the world that they were just at. Gold clouds surrounded it, and then it disappeared surrounded by clouds of dust. Jack sighed. He probably would never find that place ever again. Jack and Art3mis flew higher, and the ship shuddered. It then entered the floating track that the race took place in. They flew to the finish line and saw that no one was there. The first ones there had already taken pictures after winning whatever prize there was for winning this particular race. Parzival, Aech, Shoto, Tankor, Tom, Gadanza and Daito were all present.

"Hey guys," Jack said after he exited the _Swordfish II_. "We won the eggs."

"How many were there?" Parzival asked. "What happened?"

"I fought Lynx." Jack said. "He's very powerful."

"The Easter egg was designed so that only three players could win it." Art3mis explained. "First, second and third place would win the eggs. They are needed for the next challenge to get the next egg. The egg was unlimited ammunition."

"For what weapons?" Aech asked.

"I presume all of our weapons now have unlimited ammo." Jack said.

"So it's going to be a battle normally people would not win." Daito said. "We'll need the big guns."

"I think that the only way to get to the next Easter egg is to fly there in a ship." Jack said. "My computer on board my spaceship said that a new world has opened up to us."

"We'll need help." Tankor said. "I'm going to get my clan to help us out."

"Awesome." Jack said. "I don't normally be part of a clan, but I guess I can be part of one to get the next Easter egg."

"Okay, so when do you want to go after it?" Parzival asked.

"First we need to contact all of our allies." Jack said.

"On it." Tankor said.

And with that, they decided that the next day, they would get the next Easter egg. In the meantime, Jack had to fix what was left of his X-wing. It was smashed and burnt. He respawned on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and went to his workbench where he fixed his vehicle.


	4. Chapter 4

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

Chapter Four

 **GoldDragonZ** : Hey guys, this is the fourth chapter in my Adventures of Jack story. If you like it, please say so. If you don't than that's okay too.

The force field shimmered as the _Tensa Zangetsu_ made its approach to the world that had appeared when Jack, Lynx and Art3mis found the Easter eggs. Other ships appeared along with the _Tensa Zangetsu_. Rodney/Tankor_117 had summoned the massive force of his clan. The High Five were there with ships of their own. Jack sat on his captain's chair on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He saw the shield and realized that Lynx might have put the shield there so that only he could achieve the next Easter egg.

"That guy." Jack seethed. "He put a shield over the world so that only he could access the Easter egg."

"You're right." Art3mis reported from her ship, _The Swordfish II_.

"Yo, Tankor." Jack communicated with his brother. "Tell your clan to fire on my mark."

"No problem." Tankor then spoke to his comrades. "Everyone, my brother Jack 100292402 is going to open up with an attack to break open the shield. He wants all of us to help him get through the shield so that we could get the next Easter egg."

"Parzival and the rest of the High Five." Jack communicated. "Get ready to fire on my mark."

"I guess the person with the biggest gun is in charge." Aech mused as the High Five got ready to fire with their respective ships.

Aech was with Parzival on board _the Nebuchadnezzar_ from _The Matrix_ series _._ Daito and Shoto were on board the _Gunstar_ from _The Last Starfighter._ Gadanza was piloting an orange _Wraith_ from _StarCraft._ Tom was piloting an _UNSC_ _C-709 Longsword Interceptor_ from _Halo_ : _Combat Evolved_ that Jack had fixed for him _._ Tankor had chosen a heavy duty ship that only used missiles similar to a _Terran Viking_ from _StarCraft II_ , and aimed his weapons at the shielded world. They all waited for Jack to give the signal to open fire.

* * *

Lynx took up residence on the world and looked up. He saw that there were many ships just staying place outside of the shield. They seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Lynx needed to work fast. Although the shield was designed to have unlimited energy because he made it that way, it could be pierced if the enemies used enough hardware. That would allow several ships to come down to the world and look for the Easter egg. Lynx looked at the world. There were thousands of beings from the god Anubis' army. They were dog- like humanoids that were wielding staffs with blades on the two ends. They were based on Egyptian mythos. They looked and saw Lynx, and began running. They were all surrounding a pyramid with a huge gate facing the army and Lynx. Obviously, Anubis' army were protecting the gate and the Easter egg that lay behind it. Then, there were several explosions. The army rushed Lynx, but several thousand mines exploded, causing massive damage to the world and to the army itself. Tridosk flew a TIE Bomber over the army and started letting out a massive barrage of bombs that fell and destroyed many of the soldiers. Lynx activated his huge proton cannon that rested on his left shoulder, and fired at will. The army exploded as Lynx assaulted the soldiers. Then, something appeared on the Pyramid. At the very top there was a blue flame. A gold mirror emerged from the flame. The mirror faced Tridosk and fired a blue beam. It slammed directly on Tridosk's ship. It fell and exploded, but Tridosk saved himself by parachuting out of the ship. Lynx looked up to the sky and saw that the High Five and their allies were getting ready to fire their weapons at the shield that Lynx had erected. He still had not found a way to stop them. The shield seemed to be temporary as Lynx had no idea what to expect with the amount of fire power that they had to use against him. In the meantime, Tridosk was fighting using Agony against the Army of Anubis. Lynx flew over to his friend and began firing his shoulder cannon and arm cannons at the numerous enemies. The pyramid began powering up again for a second attack. Lynx powered up a force-field over his Avatar and the pyramid fired at him. He gritted his teeth and held his ground as the beam exhausted itself. It seemed that the pyramid had its limits. Now, Lynx had no limits, but had too many enemies to count.

* * *

The _Tensa Zangetsu's_ Mac Cannons were at 95% powered up. Jack's knuckles were white as he waited for his weapons to be powered up. He opened up all of his missile turrets, and aimed at the same point. He looked at the radar, and saw all of his comrades. It was the High Five, Jack's friends, Tankor and Tankor's clan. The Mac Cannon was at 98% powered up.

"Alright guys." Jack said into his mike. "Just a few more seconds."

"Roger that." Aech said

"Copy _Tensa Zangetsu_." Tankor said.

Other people said they were ready. And then the Mac Cannon was 99% powered up.

"Ready!" Jack said, placing his hand on the yoke so that he could fire it himself.

The display said 100%.

"FIRE!" Jack cried out.

The Mac Cannons fired two nuclear projectiles at the shield that was not allowing anyone else to land. Missiles, bullets, laser bolts and lightning slammed into the shield close to the same area as Jack's comrades all fired as soon as Jack had cried out. Jack opened up a side panel on the _Tensa Zangetsu_. There were many barrels holding missiles. He fired them all and they slammed into the shield. And then Jack activated a Missile that could hold a person. He entered the missile and activated a force shield that protected it. He slammed the ignition sequence and was fired from a barrel attached to the base of the ship. He flew into space, and tried to steer the missile using a few controls. He could feel heat from outside. It was a little tingling that his suit gave him the sensation. He could feel sweat building on his forehead. He only had radar built into the missile, so could not see what was happening outside. He felt vibrations and saw that the missile was shaking. Then, he saw that the power in the missile flared white, and then went out. Jack tried pressing different buttons, but nothing happened. He turned on his heads up display and saw that he was still jacked in to the OASIS.

And then, systems rebooted in the missile. He saw that he had fallen through the force-field that Lynx had put up. That was probably what made his power go out. He did not know what his friends and allies were doing, but hoped they could help him once he made it down to the world with Lynx and whatever protected the Easter egg. He felt and saw the missile jerk, and the parachute burst from the back of the missile.

* * *

The nuclear blast and other explosions blinded Lynx, even though he was wearing special lenses in his _War Machine_ skin. He saw that several missiles had punctured the force-field, and were falling, landing somewhere close by. And then to his surprise, one slowed as thrusters activated. Parachutes burst out from the back of the missile, and that slowed its decent. It slammed in the ground, and a panel burst open, revealing that someone was inside the missile.

Jack_100292402 came out of the missile and saw that he was surrounded by rocks and the Army of Anubis. The missiles that he had fallen with had destroyed many of them, but several were still up, realizing that a new foe was on the field. Jack pulled out one of his Desert Eagles, and a rocket launcher. He fired the rocket launcher, causing the nearest enemy to explode.

"Lynx!" Jack cried out. "We can help each other."

"I don't need your help." Lynx replied "I have friends of my own."

And then, from his Chat room, Lynx activated several _War Machine_ skins similar to their appearances in the live action movies, cartoons and comics. He even had _Hulk Buster_ armour of his own. They appeared close to Lynx and he programmed them to fight everyone that was not a friend, Jack included. They aimed and fired missiles or repulsor beams at the Army of Anubis. Jack fired his rocket launcher at Lynx's armour/ servants. They targeted him and shot his rocket out of the air, and fired their weapons at him. Jack activated his _Optimus Primal_ skin and took to the air. He activated his two back cannons and fired them at the nearest _War Machine_ skin. He opened up his two double barrelled weapons on both of his arms and fired at the nearest enemies, be it Lynx's armour, or the Anubis soldiers. Jack looked up to the sky. There had to be some way to bring in reinforcements. He was not impervious to harm and would eventually fall if he did not get help. He needed to open up the shields as for some reason, the ships kept firing but none made it passed the shields protecting the world. And then, Jack noticed something spinning in the sky. It was a shimmering item. He activated his scanners, similar to Heat Seeking technology and could see the magical item that Lynx had used to create the force field. He leapt into the sky towards the item. Lynx appeared in front of him.

"So you know my trick." Lynx said. "I can't let you take it out."

"It's not up to you." Jack fired his two cannons on his back at Lynx, who put up a shield.

And then, while they were preoccupied with each other, the Pyramid fired a blue beam at Lynx and Jack. Jack pulled out his swords, blocking the beam while Lynx used his force-field again. Jack fell down to the ground, being forced from the sky. There had to be a way for him to get around Lynx and the Pyramid's beam. And then Jack looked up to his ship.

" _Tensa Zangetsu_." He commanded. "Prepare to fire another Mac Round on the position I give you."

"You are really close to the area." The computer said. "There is a chance you might get caught in the blast."

"Don't worry about that." Jack ordered his ship. "Prepare to fire. Jets online, Maximum Berg."

He took a picture of where the item was, hovering in the air, and sent it to _the Tensa Zangetsu_. He took to the air, and flew away from the area where the main battle was raging.

"The cannon is only at 67%." The computer reported.

"That's fine," Jack said, and then opened up his communication to include all of his comrades. "Guys, fire at this location."

Jack sent out the point that he needed his allies to attack. Missiles, bullets and laser bolts slammed the shield, and then the semi-powered Mac cannon shot a round into the shield. The shield still held. Jack then pulled out a boomerang. He flung it as hard as he could, using _Optimus Primal's_ animalistic nature. Jack then concentrated his fire at the pyramid. Upon seeing that Jack was making his way around the pyramid to try and retrieve the Easter egg, Lynx focused his efforts on Jack. However, all of his skins were busy fighting the Army of Anubis. Tridosk was using Agony and Robocop's hand cannon to fight the enemies as well. And then there was an explosion. Lynx looked back in horror as he saw that the device he used to activate the shield was reduced to bits of code.

"You planned this!" Lynx cried out to Jack. "You knew I would follow you."

"That's right." Jack replied, and then opened up the communication to all of his allies. "Everyone, use your weapons to take out this army!"

The _Tensa Zangetsu_ flew close to the ground and started using turrets to destroy the Army of Anubis. And then, from inside the pyramid came a buzzing sound. Large insects emerged from within the pyramid, similar to black flies. They flew to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ which had to focus on protecting itself. Aech and Parzival came out of their ship, and drove in the DeLorean that Parzival had used to win the race when trying for the first key for the very first Easter egg. Aech was using a rocket launcher.

"Artemis." Jack called out. "Only you and I can enter the Pyramid."

And then, to everyone's surprise, _The Gunstar_ from _The Last Starfighter_ came down, and activated all of its laser cannons. It started firing at all of the black flies. All of Tankor's allies fired upon the black flies and the other soldiers that made up the Army of Anubis. Several of them landed and the soldiers went out, using weapons to fire upon the hoards that they faced. Art3mis followed Jack and Lynx as they entered the pyramid. Lynx continued following Jack, firing his weapons upon his foe. Jack's armour was holding, but it would only be a matter of time before the _Optimus Primal_ skin disappeared. Jack aimed at Lynx and fired his two shoulder cannons. Their missiles and repulsor beams collided with each other. Art3mis was in _The Swordfish II_ and followed them into the pyramid. She saw that Lynx was firing at the only other person who could retrieve the next egg. And then, they entered a huge chamber within the pyramid. Within the pyramid was a massive cave. The Blue diamonds glowed softly within the cave. There were many metal structures going down within the cave. Jack checked out his Heads up Display to see his skin's health. It was at a mere 17%. If Lynx attacked him anymore, the skin would dissolve. However, at the time, it seemed Lynx was preoccupied by looking at what was surrounding them. Lynx swung around, and aimed his weapons at Art3mis and her ship. He fired his shoulder mini-gun and two machine gun-like weapons on his arms. Metal slugs collided with the ship's left wing. The bullets severed the wing and the ship started falling from the air. Art3mis ejected from the ship, and it disappeared from view as she put it away. She opened up a parachute and drifted down into the massive cave.

Almost at the same time, Jack's _Optimus Primal_ skin disappeared, and he fell quickly. He searched through his inventory as quick as he could. He then found a jet pack and activated the device. He flew towards Art3mis, and then looked for where Lynx was. He saw that Lynx was looking down for somewhere to land. And then they saw a structure built into the massive wall of the cave. It had a landing strip. Jack quickly reached out for Art3mis who grabbed his arm. Her parachute disappeared, and Jack used his jet pack to fly them to the landing pad. Lynx aimed his massive proton cannon at the two of them.

"Wait, Lynx." Jack said. "We don't know what we're dealing with here. We could help each other. That must be what Halliday wanted if he let three people get the first Easter egg."

"First of all, it's like a competition." Lynx rebutted. "We are always going to be against each other. Now I will let you walk out of here alive on your own power, or I'm going to blow you away. What do you choose?"

"You want to play games, okay, let's play games." Jack said, pulling out two Heckler and Koch UMP-9s and started firing them at Lynx who also opened up with his massive cannon.

Art3mis tried to bypass the shootout and go into the structure. Jack flew up in the air, dodging the repulsor beams that were getting too close to him. He then put away his jet pack while he was still high up in the air. He fell onto Lynx, who could not manage to get away from being under Jack. Jack knocked the massive cannon away from Lynx, and it disappeared. Jack aimed one of his weapons at Lynx's head while Lynx aimed a machine gun of his own that appeared on his left arm at Jack's head.

"I don't suppose you have an extra life?" Lynx mused. "I'll probably need it. I'll tell you what; give me one, and I will let you go."

"I have no idea where I could get one." Jack seethed.

"Then I guess I'm just going to blow you away." Lynx prepared to fire at Jack.

Jack closed his eyes, ready to die. Then, something shuffled out of sight. Something sucked in the stale air and hissed. Jack and Lynx stood, taking their sights off of each other to see what was coming to them. Gliding with ancient grace, not retreating, the creature did not seem to feel fear. It roared a long, tortured cry that pierced the area. Its wings folded up and its four limbs slammed onto the landing pad. Lynx and Jack immediately started firing their weapons at the massive beast. And then there was a cry out as Art3mis tried using a trident to stab the animal from behind. It used its small tail to slap Art3mis away. It tried swatting at Lynx with one of its winged arms. He flew up and activated a mini-gun to appear so that he needed both arms to hold and the bullets were stored in a backpack and was fed to the gun itself by a chain. He started barraging the creature with high powered shots. The mini-gun would not run out of bullets so it kept firing at the creature. The creature was really tough. Jack quickly opened his Heads up Display and tried to find a skin that he could use to combat the massive beast.

"It's a boss." Jack said to himself.

The creature took flight once more and tried to grab Lynx in its mouth. He flew up using the repulsors on his legs. He continued firing his mini-gun, screaming as he did so. Jack and Art3mis looked at one another. They took off on foot into the inner chamber. Lynx activated his force-field. The creature's claws slammed into the shield, which turned into a bubble to protect Lynx all over his body. He continued flying away from the creature and fired his mini-gun at it. He then switched to his huge proton cannon and fired at the beast. It screeched in pain as one of its wings fell off. It fell down into the abyss. In the meanwhile, Jack was with Art3mis.

"I think the next Easter egg is in here." Art3mis said to Jack.

Jack looked to Art3mis and followed her into the chamber. And then, they heard a snarl. They saw golden eyes glow. Jack pulled out his two Heckler and Koch UMP-9s and began firing at the beast. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex; Art3mis pulled out her motorcycle, and grabbed Jack. They drove out of the structure, but stopped short at the edge of the platform. Jack pulled out a rocket launcher and took aim at the T-Rex. He launched a missile and it slammed head on to the beast. The dinosaur pulled back its head in agony and roared once more. Jack pulled out a combination assault rifle which had a fully automatic piece, shotgun and rocket propelled grenade launcher. He fired several rounds from the fully automatic, then once slug from the shot gun, and ended with a shot from his grenade launcher. From behind Jack, Lynx fired his cannon and it slammed into the T-rex's head. Jack fired his assault rifle once more, while Art3mis pulled out a special device.

" _Alok, molay atrita cura vista."_ Art3mis said into the device.

It was a spell of some kind. The device began floating and went from being black and opaque to white and glowed brightly. Art3mis aimed at the creature that they were combating and launched her spell. Like a massive arm, the energy that came from the orb grabbed the T-rex and lifted it up. It roared and writhed, trying to get out of the spell's grasp. Art3mis brought it so it was over the abyss and she deactivated the device. The T-Rex fell to its death with the bat-like creature that Lynx had been facing. And then, silence took them. Lynx spun around, and aimed his left arm and its weapon at Art3mis. He aimed his right arm and its weapon at Jack.

"And then there were two." Lynx said.

"You don't have to do this." Jack said.

"We all want to know what is in store for us." Art3mis said. "We found the first Easter egg."

"You followed me." Lynx said, referring to the race where they had found the unlimited ammunition. "You had no idea where the egg was and chose to follow me after seeing me disappear into the track."

"But we knew what you were going after." Jack said, and then he aimed his grenade launcher at Lynx.

A red laser pointed at Lynx's chest.

Lynx looked at Jack, who was aiming his weapon at Lynx.

"You're a scrub noob." Lynx seethed. "You don't have what it takes to get me."

A shot rang out as Art3mis fired a sniper rifle at Lynx. It slammed into his head and his head whipped backwards. Jack took the opportunity to fire at Lynx at the same time. His grenade launcher fired an explosive that blew Lynx off the landing area. Jack and Art3mis turned and dashed into the opening that was just around the corner. And then, they stopped short.

 _Thanos_ from _Marvel Comics_ stood in their way and he was wearing a gauntlet with all six _Infinity Stones._ He activated the _Time Stone_ and then the T-Rex was back on the landing pad, but it was behind Jack and Art3mis. It roared and they opened fire with their weapons. Jack used his grenade launcher and Art3mis used her sniper rifle. Meanwhile, Thanos walked up behind Jack and Art3mis. He picked up Art3mis by the neck and brought her to the edge of the platform where he was going to throw her off of. Jack looked back at them and he brought out his Desert Eagle, and fired at Thanos. Thanos just looked at Jack and his bullets stopped mid-air. They fell to the ground. Jack ducked and dodged as the Tyrannosaurus tried biting him. He opened up his inventory and pulled out a new skin. It was Gandalf the White from _The Lord of the Rings_. He shown a bright white light at the dinosaur, and it relented. The Tyrannosaurus sat on his stomach, and then Jack turned to face Thanos. He brought up his staff and shown white light at the Titan. Thanos threw Art3mis over the edge. Jack activated his Avatar once more and used the jet pack to fly after Art3mis. And then, Lynx was there. He caught Art3mis and aimed one of his arm cannons at Jack.

"We can't beat him." Jack said about Thanos. "We need your help."

"I'll help you guys just this once." Lynx said.

The three players flew back up to the landing pad and faced a docile Tyrannosaurus and the titan Thanos. He showed them his Infinity Gauntlet with all six stones. Lynx reached up and started typing seemingly in the air.

"You're using a computer?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I'm hacking into the OASIS to see what I can do." Lynx said. "I found something."

And with that, Lynx's left arm started to glow. He had used his computer to view the powers that they were facing and copied the coding and applied it to us Avatar. Now he too had six Infinity Stones on a gold Gauntlet. At the same time, Thanos and Lynx snapped their fingers. Jack used his staff and slammed it down as hard as he could. White light erupted and all players closed their eyes. Both Lynx and Thanos used up all of the power of their Gauntlets. Now they were masses of metal on their arms, and the Infinity Stones were nothing now but black or clear jewels which had no value as they fell apart. Using the rest of Gandalf the White's power, Jack had saved himself and Art3mis. Lynx then seemed to be typing in the air again. He was obviously on a computer in the real world which was connected to his OASIS console. He powered up his massive proton cannon and fired at Thanos. Jack's Gandalf skin went away as he had used up all of its power. Lynx's weapon did not let out. It never ran out of power as Lynx, Jack, and Art3mis were given unlimited ammunition. Thanos' body fell, his head and part of his shoulders not there anymore.

"Now I have the power." Lynx said to Jack and Art3mis. "Don't bother following me."

He then entered the chamber that Thanos had been protecting. Jack and Art3mis looked at each other. Lynx was now more powerful if he could continue using the _Infinity Stones_. Jack then put away his weapons and then followed Lynx, with curiosity getting the better of him. Not wanting to be left behind, Art3mis followed suit. The walked through a doorway, and as they entered, a massive door closed behind them. Lynx was at a computer console, trying to input information but having no idea what to do about activating the Easter egg.

"Hey, Lynx." Art3mis said. "I think all three of us need to be here to receive the Easter egg."

Jack came up beside Lynx while Art3mis was on the other side. They looked at the console that Lynx was trying to use and saw a bluish white object brighten. Jack and Art3mis placed their hands on the object. Lynx sighed.

"I guess it can't be helped." He said. "We really needed each other to do this."

Lynx placed his hand over Jack and Art3mis' hands. Then, a bright light illuminated the area around them and Anorak appeared in front of the three players.

"Hello players." Anorak said to them. "You cannot know how pleased I am that you came here to find the next Easter egg. With it, all of your vehicles will now go faster than ever before. You will need a flying vehicle to get to the next area to get to the next objective."

"We first won unlimited ammo." Jack thought out loud. "And now we are getting a boost in speed for all of our vehicles. It sounds like you are planning something bigger."

"Yes." Anorak said. "Unlike other games, you will need to fight your way back to the surface of this world. You will then have twenty-four hours to get to the next Easter egg."

"I already have the ability to go faster than anyone else." Lynx said proudly.

"We need the ability." Art3mis said. "I guess you think ahead of anyone else."

"Obviously, noob." Lynx seethed angrily at Art3mis. "So I guess there's nothing more to say."

"I have done all I can." Anorak said. "Here are the eggs. God's speed."

With that, Anorak disappeared, leaving the three egg hunters with the eggs that they had claimed. Jack, Lynx and Art3mis made their way out of the chamber and came face to face with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It roared as Lynx pulled out his massive cannon. Jack pulled out his rocket launcher, and Art3mis pulled out two hand held grenade launchers. They shot the animal with all of the power that they had. Lynx had the most power behind his weapon. The dinosaur's headless body came down with a crash. The creature that resembled a bat came down, and picked up Lynx in its talon-like feet. It broke his cannon. Jack looked through his inventory and pulled out his jetpack and a grapnel gun. He shot the gun and the claw at the end grasped the fur behind the creature's neck. He flew into the air right behind the animal. He activated the winch that was part of the grapnel gun and it pulled him closer to the back of the bat. He pulled out the Desert Eagle that was on his left side and aimed at the creature's head. He pulled the trigger several times and lead slugs slammed into the creature. It writhed in pain and dropped Lynx, who fell away. Jack pulled himself onto the back of the creature and put away his gun. He took out _Sokka's sword_ from _Avatar: The Last Air-bender._ He slipped the blade into the beast's neck at the side. This was a fatal cut and the animal disappeared, being defeated. Jack looked down and saw that Lynx was aiming a mini-gun up at him. Jack pulled out a special device and activated it. It was a force shield and he had turned it on just in time as Lynx started firing up at him. Jack then decided that he could not deal with Lynx like this. Lynx had unlimited ammunition while Jack's shield had a limited amount of power.

"Fucking guy." Jack seethed. "I saved him and he's being a prick about it."

Jack flew out of the pyramid and saw that the Army of Anubis was still doing battle with Tankor's clan. Several had run out of bullets and were using melee weapons like swords, tridents, axes, clubs, staves, spears, and other weapons. Jack pulled out his assault rifle that also had a shotgun and grenade launcher attached to it. He fired his assault rifle at the enemies.

"Shit guys," Jack said to his allies. "We got the eggs, but there is a limited amount of time for us to reach the next egg."

"How many eggs are there?" Tankor asked his brother.

"I believe there is one last egg." Jack replied.

"Get on board _Tensa Zangetsu_." Tankor said. "We'll handle your escape."

"I can't leave yet." Jack said. "I need Lynx and Artemis."

Jack looked back at the pyramid but could not see what was happening between Lynx and Art3mis.

"Parzival!" Jack cried out. "Lynx has gone crazy. I think he only wants the Easter eggs for himself. He tried killing me, and I think he's going to do the same to Artemis."

"Roger that." Parzival said.

Parzival, Shoto, Daito and Aech fought together side by side and they made their way to find Art3mis. Jack met them and went with them. Tankor, Tom, Gadanza also met them. Tankor used an AA-12 shotgun; Parzival used an M4 Carbine Rifle. Shoto was using an AK 47. Aech was using the assault rifle from the _Halo_ series. Daito was using a sword as he had run out of bullets. Tom was on his _Ghost Rider_ Motorcycle, and was using small machine guns to shoot at the enemies as he ran them over as well. Gadanza was using two Mac 10s. Parzival made his way to the entrance of the pyramid, and Lynx flew out like a bat out of hell. He was followed closely by Art3mis. She was using _Iron Man's Bleeding Edge_ Armour. She could very well hold her own against Lynx.

"Artemis!" Parzival screamed.

"I'm okay." She said as she landed close to her boyfriend.

She deactivated the armour and she and Parzival hugged each other. They watched as Lynx pulled out his alien ship from _Independence Day_. He took to the air and flew quickly out of sight into the upper atmosphere of the world.

"So what now?" Aech asked Art3mis and Jack.

"We need to get the final egg to complete whatever puzzle Halliday left for us." Jack replied.

"Are you totally sure that Halliday is the one who left these Easter eggs?" Parzival asked. "It could be another person who has access to the OASIS."

"Like Morrow?" Jack asked. "Yeah it could be possible. We have 24 hours to find the final egg."

"We need to move quickly if we need to beat Lynx." Art3mis said. "He might put up a stronger shield over the world so this time even your Mac Cannon cannot penetrate it."

"You're right." Jack said. "Alright guys, let's go."

Jack and his allies continued fighting against the Army of Anubis. Jack summoned a dropship to come pick them up.

"Rod!" Jack said to his brother. "I'm going to follow Lynx to see what he's up to. Did you guys want to come with us?"

"Man this is too fun." Tankor/Rodney Patel said. "But yeah, the main reason we came was to help you and Artemis find that Easter egg."

Tankor told his crew to finish up the fight. The drop ship came down and fired its weapons all around Jack and the High Five, Tom and Gadanza. They piled into the ship and were off to get on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_. Tankor's clan continued fighting and then they pulled out their spaceships or other flying vehicles. They flew away from the world, leaving destruction in their wake. Tridosk took off in his _TIE-Interceptor_ to join Lynx at the other Easter egg's location.

"Why did we need unlimited ammo?" Art3mis asked Jack.

"Maybe there is something else we should be fighting?" Jack thought out loud. "Maybe for the next egg we'll need as much firepower that we can get."

The flight to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ was a short one. Jack and his allies made it to the bridge. He activated a device that his robot crew had created. There were several places where Jack could place his Easter eggs. It changed the _Tensa Zangetsu_ so now it had unlimited ammunition and epic speed.

"This place is nice." Aech said. "You have everything here."

"Yeah, this is like my chatroom." Jack said. "I would take you all for a tour, but there's no time.

Jack used his computer on the ship to find out where the next Easter egg would be. It appeared that a new world had come into existence when Lynx, Jack and Art3mis found the Easter eggs. Jack piloted his ship to go to the new world. Everyone on board checked how much ammunition they had.

"Hey since you guys have unlimited ammo, can you give us some?" Daito asked.

"Yeah sure," Jack said as he gave them 10000 bullets each.

The _Tensa Zangetsu_ lurched and roared away from the world with the pyramid. They left the atmosphere and took off into space. Jack used a special telescope to see where in the OASIS Lynx was heading. He input the coordinates into his computer so that the ship would go the same way. He prepared a new Mac Round. The ship powered up and went into hyper-drive. The Mac Cannon was 87% powered up, and needed a few more minutes to come to full power so that the Mac's blast could be at its strongest.

"Your brother's clan." Parzival said. "Without them, I don't think we can penetrate the shield that Lynx is going to put over this world this time."

"Yeah, they might have lost most of their ammunition." Daito chimed in.

"We're just going to have to see about that." Jack said.

They came out of hyper-drive just outside the atmosphere of the other world. They looked out the viewpoint window and saw that Lynx and Tridosk were being attacked by an octopus like monster with huge tentacles.

"Computer, how much longer until the Mac Round is fully powered up?" Jack asked _Tensa Zangetsu_.

"It will take three minutes, forty two seconds." The computer reported.

"Fire all missiles." Jack ordered. "Destroy the monster that is attacking the two players."

"Wait." Art3mis said. "Shouldn't we wait to see what's going to happen?"

"They need our help." Jack said.

"He tried to screw all of us." Parzival interjected. "He put up the shield over the last objective so that he alone could claim it."

"What about the other person down there?" Jack retorted. "He didn't do anything to us."

"Okay." Parzival said. "Let's do this."

"What do you need?" Jack asked.

"We need access to your largest hangar." Aech said. "I'm going to bring out _The Nebuchadnezzar_."

"I'm going to co-pilot it so that it can have my special abilities." Art3mis said. "It will have my unlimited ammo and increased speed."

So the High Five, Gadanza and Tom went to the main hangar. Aech pulled out _The Nebuchadnezzar_ and activated it. It grew big. Everyone climbed aboard the ship except Jack. He needed to remain in _The Tensa Zangetsu_ to see what was happening and use the ship's weapons to beat the enemies. _The Nebuchadnezzar_ lifted off and exited the bigger ship. Daito, Parzival, Tom, Gadanza, and Shoto went to the turrets as Aech and Art3mis piloted the craft. They bolted to the creature that was trying to destroy Lynx and Tridosk. _The Nebuchadnezzar_ took a position where many of its turrets were facing the tentacle beast. They opened up, firing as many rounds as they could at the beast. In the meanwhile, Jack was powering up his Mac Cannon. He aimed his missiles at the creature and prepared to fire. And then he noticed the eye of the creature as its tentacles moved out of the way. It saw Jack on the bridge of his ship. _The Nebuchadnezzar's_ rounds seemed to not be damaging the beast at all.

"Ship!" Jack said. "I need that Mac Round ready now!"

"Mac Round will be ready in one minute, thirty seconds." The computer said. "Charge is at 89%."

"Damn it." Jack swore. "On my mark, fire all missiles at the point where the tentacles meet the creature's body. Hit the eye, the eye!"

The computer waited for the tentacles to waver. Then, there was an opening as the creature moved its tentacles to see _The Nebuchadnezzar_ and the _Tensa Zangetsu._ Countless missiles screamed passed the main viewport for the bridge of the _Tensa Zangetsu_. Some of them smashed into the tentacles of the massive creature.

"Raise _the Nebuchadnezzar_." Jack ordered his computer.

"Aech here." Aech said into her communication relay.

"Your bullets are not doing anything." Jack said. "Pull back. I have the Mac Round ready to be shot."

"You need an opening." Art3mis said. "Let us give you that."

And with that, _the Nebuchadnezzar_ lurched forward, until it was pushing several of the massive tentacles aside.

"Computer, how much longer until the Mac round is ready?" Jack asked.

"Seventy-Two seconds remaining." The computer reported.

"Damn it." Jack seethed. "Fire all missiles at will."

With that, more missiles fired from the ship, slamming into the tentacles of the massive beast. The Easter egg regarding unlimited ammunition was working. Every time a missile was launched, another one would spawn in its place, ready to be launched as well.

"Keep firing!" Jack screamed as his massive ship fired multiple missiles in waves.

"Forty seconds remaining until Mac Cannon is fully charged." The computer reported.

"There must be something else we can distract it with until the Mac Round is ready." Jack thought.

And then it dawned on him to check what items he had stored in his arsenal. Some things he could only use once. Other things had a cooling off period where they could be used for a certain amount of time, and then needed to cool off. And now some things could be used for an infinite amount of time because of the Easter egg.

"Activate the gravity well." Jack ordered his ship. "Make it want to protect those regions farthest from its eye so that the Mac Round can hit the eye, destroying it."

Using gravity, missiles were guided to hit the beast on its tentacles at regions furthest from its eye. Now, its eye could be seen from where Jack was sitting on the bridge of his ship.

"Firing Mac Cannon in ten seconds." The computer said.

The whole ship rumbled as the Mac Cannon fired its nuclear projectile into the eye of the beast that was attacking Lynx and Tridosk. The creature started letting go of the ships, and started flying away, wounded. It let out sticky black ink in its wake, which seemed to be floating. Jack breathed out, not realizing he had been holding his breath.

"Reverse the gravity well." Jack said. "Make the ink dissipate."

The gravity made the ink fall to the world's surface. Jack now saw the world that Anorak or Halliday had wanted them to go to. They were closer to retrieving the next Easter egg.

 **GoldDragonZ:** Please review. Next chapter should come up soon.


	5. Chapter 5

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

Chapter Five

 **GoldDragonZ** : Hey guys, this is the fifth chapter in my Adventures of Jack story. You know what to do. ;)

 _The Nebuchadnezzar_ touched down on the rocky planet. There was nothing surrounding them but sandy cliffs and blue sky. The High Five plus Gadanza and Tom took out their best weapons and checked their surroundings. There seemed to be nothing there to threaten them for the time being.

"Where's Jack?" Art3mis asked Gadanza and Tom.

"He'll be here." Gadanza said.

And then they noticed the alien spaceship from _Independence Day_ and the _TIE Interceptor_ coming down to rest really close to them. Lynx and Tridosk came out of their ships.

"You guys saved us." Tridosk said to the High Five and their friends.

"I admit you guys and shown me at least that you're not completely noobs." Lynx said. "But we are in competition with each other. If I see the egg first, I will take it."

"That's fine, but you can't escape it." Art3mis responded. "We have your back no matter what. You're an awesome player."

"Yeah, we don't have to be against each other." Parzival said. "We can see this through."

"If you need anything to be fixed, I'm here." Aech said.

"I don't know about Lynx, but I think we would be better together." Tridosk said. "I don't have other people backing me."

"Do what you want," Lynx said. "I'm going now."

And with that, Lynx turned around and began walking away. He took to the air by firing up his leg thrusters.

"I need Ammunition." Tridosk told the High Five. "Do you guys have any to spare?"

"Of course." Art3mis said, "What type of gun do you have?"

"I have a Beretta 93R." Tridosk answered. "It's the one used-"

"By Robocop!" Parzival said. "Nice man."

"Thanks," Tridosk said. "I loved that movie."

"Okay so I have six 50 round magazines for your weapon." Art3mis told their new ally. "Tell me if you need more."

"Thank you so much." Tridosk said.

Everyone looked into their ammunition of their weapons. And then, they started hearing a loud buzzing. They looked up to see a drop ship on approach. It was carrying two jeep-like vehicles. The ship touched down, and let go the two jeeps that were attached to the back. The ship took off again, and set down several meters away to give room for the jeeps to start driving. Jack hopped out of the cockpit with his assault rifle/shotgun/grenade launcher combination. He walked up to the group of players.

"Hey guys." Jack said. "Who's this?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot." Tridosk said. "My name in the OASIS is Tridosk. I'm partners with Lynx."

"Where is he?" Jack asked.

"He went up ahead." Daito said. "He doesn't like working with others."

"He tried killing us before." Art3mis told Tridosk and the others. "He really wants this Easter eggs for himself. What's with the jeeps?"

"I scanned this world." Jack explained. "It seems to be dead, but there is a metal structure just over that ridge there."

"That's where Lynx was heading." Shoto said.

"Then that's where we should start looking for the next Easter egg." Jack said.

Parzival, Art3mis, Shoto, Daito and Aech took the first Jeep while Jack, Gadanza, Tridosk and Tom took the other one. They drove over a hill and drove quickly passed the dunes and cliffs to either side of them. And then they started hearing the sound of battling. Someone was firing a weapon at enemies that were screeching and snarling. The jeeps came around a corner and they could see Lynx hovering in the sky, shooting down at the entrance of the metal structure. Alien bugs were at the entrance, crawling over the dead, trying to jump and grab Lynx, who continued firing at them. Everyone piled out of their jeeps and started firing their weapons into the group of insects. Jack launched grenades which exploded, sending blood and entrails everywhere. Lynx pulled out missile launchers and began firing rockets that could take out tanks. The alien creatures ran in different directions, as some burned. Tom took out his _Ghost Rider Motorcycle_ and started driving around the area, shooting various aliens with a Mac-10 in his right hand. His flaming wheels burnt aliens alive as he ran several over. Jack activated his jetpack and flew to Art3mis who was back to back with Parzival.

"We need to get to the structure." He pleaded. "Give me your hands guys!"

Jack stowed his weapon on the back of his jet pack and grabbed Art3mis and Parzival, flying above the hoard of insects that snapped up at them.

"Yo Bro!" Jack screamed.

"Dude I'm like standing right beside you." Tankor said.

They usually played in the same room because it had enough space for them to run on the tracks that went different directions in the real world.

"Can you guys come meet us here at this world that I am on?" Jack asked.

"No can do, big bro." Tankor said. "As soon as you and your friends landed on it, it disappeared. Whoever designed it only wants the three people who received the Easter eggs to be there. The rest of us can't know what you are up against."

"Shit." Jack swore. "Alright, fine. I'll tell you about it after we win."

Jack looked through his inventory and pulled out a bubble shield. He went to the entrance of the structure, touched down, and activated the shield.

"Artemis." Jack said. "Can you operate a mini-gun?"

"Yeah, but what good is that?" She asked.

"You can keep those bugs out while I get to the Easter egg. Whatever I win, I will share with everyone."

"What if it's not for everyone?" Parzival asked skeptically.

"We need backup." Jack said, leaving the two players to find the rest of their group.

The shield seemed to be holding for now. Jack found that the other players were on the high ground, shooting their weapons to the closest aliens. Tom was driving around, shooting and running aliens over.

"Guys, get to that structure over there with the Bubble shield." Jack told his allies. "Computer, launch weak missiles on the aliens that we are facing."

The _Tensa Zangetsu_ acknowledged Jack's request, and as he and his allies made it to the structure, missiles rained down on the spider like beasts that were trying to kill them. They made it behind the bubble shield just in time as fire roasted all of the aliens. In the meantime, Art3mis was firing at the aliens using the mini-gun that Jack had given her. Parzival was using an assault rifle of his own to cover his friends as they made their approach to the structure. They all made it to the shield.

"Get in there." Art3mis said to Jack. "You need to see what Lynx is doing."

"Roger that." Jack said as he went into the inner chamber.

"You should go there as well, Artemis." Shoto said. "We will cover you with whatever weapons we have."

"I'm going in as well." Tridosk said. "Lynx is my friend and he might need me."

"Alright let's go." Jack said.

Art3mis gave Parzival the mini-gun and gave him 500 bullets. Art3mis, Jack and Tridosk made their way deeper into the structure. They could hear battle going on in the chamber itself. Lynx was firing his mini-gun at a creature that had many limbs that resembled scythes. It screeched in frustration as it tried attacking him. The chamber itself was really small. Jack aimed his grenade launcher/assault rifle/shotgun at the creature and launched a grenade at it. Art3mis pulled out a grenade launcher and shot it at the creature. Tridosk fired his _Robocop_ handgun at the creature as well. Lynx pulled out Tank missiles and shot several at the creature as well. Its legs were blown off its body. It screeched as the Easter egg hunters continued firing at it, killing it.

"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" Lynx seethed. "I had it."

"We're here for the Easter egg." Jack told him. "We are here to claim it, same as you. To be honest, I bend the rules, like how you do it. I'm not going to claim that I am better than you, but there are people who are better than us. They follow the rules."

"So what?" Lynx scoffed. "I'm not going to stop what I'm doing."

"As part of the High Five, and the winners of the Easter egg," Art3mis chimed in, "We have the ability to strip you of your profile on the OASIS server. Either work with us, or we'll delete you."

"You guys are all full of shit." Lynx told them. "Fine, I'll share the egg."

Lynx landed close to the creature which was smoking from several charred parts of its body and bullet holes. They went deeper into the chamber and found a room to the back of it. Inside was the final Easter egg. Anorak was not there. A massive creature was holding the egg. The creature looked like a huge spider-like creature similar to the creatures that they had all fought outside the structure.

"Hold on Lynx." Jack said. "Something's not right."

"Yeah, you're here." Lynx said as he walked right over to the egg.

And then the floor opened up beneath him. Lynx was experienced and was expecting something to happen, so he activated the repulsors in his boots and flew up into the chamber. Tridosk was left at the entrance to the chamber as Jack offered Art3mis his hand. He flew up using a jet pack, and he swung Art3mis around. In the meanwhile, Lynx went for the Easter egg. Art3mis shot passed him and slammed into the creature. She grabbed the egg at the same time Lynx reached for it. They both grabbed and held on as the creature that was holding the egg came to life. It shrugged them off. Art3mis grabbed hold of Lynx so that she would not fall to her death. Jack came up beside them.

"You seek the egg?" The creature asked. "You must answer these questions. What was the movie where two friends created a woman of their dreams using a ritual that does not really exist? Why would this be important?"

"The movie is probably Weird Science." Art3mis began. "The woman would represent the OASIS. The two friends would be Morrow and Halliday. This was their dream. Like all women, this may have driven them apart."

"You are right." The creature said. "You three have successfully retrieved the final Easter egg."

"I found it first." Lynx said. "It should be mine."

"I answered the questions." Art3mis said. "It should be mine."

"Where is Anorak?" Jack asked the creature. "Maybe he can decide who wins the egg?"

"You three have successfully defeated every obstacle to get to the egg." The creature said in a voice that sounded like two glass bottles rubbing against each other. "Therefore all three of you may have the egg. This had little to do with Anorak and belongs solely to the OASIS. The first Easter egg, you won unlimited ammunition. With the second egg, you won a boost of speed for all of your vehicles. The final egg is eternal life. Like Anorak, your three Avatars will live on in the OASIS. Plus as an added bonus, you and your vehicles will no longer receive damage by other players. There is one more challenge, however. "

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"You have to try and get the egg from me." The creature said, and with that it started crawling on the wall of the chamber.

Lynx opened up by shooting his mini-gun at the creature, not caring if he destroyed the egg of anything else for that matter. By Lynx shooting, he had shrugged Art3mis off of his body. Jack swooped down and grabbed her, pulling her up close to his body. The creature placed the egg into its mouth and started spouting web from the bottom of its body. It tried wrapping up Lynx as he was the only being trying to fight her at the moment.

"Artemis." Jack said into her ear. "On the count of three, I'm going to swing you onto the creature. Can you get my sword, or any other weapon that can kill it?"

"You mean like a knife or something?" She asked.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "You need something that can kill it or knock it out."

"Got it," Art3mis said as she got ready and pulled out a device; a laser sword from the _Halo_ franchise.

Jack waited until the spider-like being was fully involved with Lynx and then he flung Art3mis at it. At the last minute, Art3mis activated the sword and plunged it into the body of the creature. The creature squealed and Art3mis pulled the egg from its maw. The three players had worked well together, and as such, the egg started floating away from Art3mis' grasp. It turned into three eggs, and floated to each of the three players. Now, the challenge was complete. Jack, Art3mis and Lynx had won the Easter eggs and received Unlimited Ammunition, Increase Speed for their Vehicles, and Immortality in the OASIS. They exited the chamber with Tridosk in tow. They met their friends at the entrance to the chamber. The bubble shield was still erected. Also, it seemed that as soon as they retrieved the egg, the creatures outside the structure dissolved into nothing.

"How did it go?" Aech asked Art3mis, Jack, and Lynx.

"We won the eggs." Art3mis replied. "We won immortality. We will be like Anorak in the OASIS, and probably will represent different Easter eggs that will be made available in the future, or at least I think that's how it will work. No one can kill us either."

"Was it Halliday who created these new Easter eggs?" Parzival asked.

"I'm not sure." Jack said. "It could be his partner."

"Easter eggs like these are probably common place within video games." Lynx said. "It doesn't matter who designed it, I will be the one to retrieve them all."

With that, Lynx pulled out his alien spaceship from _Independence Day_ and beckoned Tridosk to follow him.

"It was awesome playing with you guys." Tridosk said as he pulled out his _TIE Interceptor._

The two players took off from the world.

"Okay so we helped you win." Tom said. "I think you owe us something."

"How does that work?" Aech asked. "Jack got the Easter egg as well."

"Then think of this as a favour." Gadanza said. "We'll be part of your clan, and we'll win you more money to buy things with if you do this for us."

"What do you have in mind?" Parzival asked.

"Our friend in the Real World does not have an OASIS Console." Jack added. "We want him to play with us. If I give you my eggs, would you give us a console?"

Parzival's eyes widened as he heard Jack's proposition.

"It's tempting, but you won the eggs fair and square." Aech said. "But, it might be possible for you to share the eggs with us in the same way Parzival did with the egg that Halliday had left us to find. I'm going to analyze Artemis' eggs and let you know."

"Okay, so I'll be back online tomorrow." Jack replied. "I'll see you guys then."

* * *

Mark Patel pulled off his headset, and squeezed the bridge of his nose. It had been a long day going to school and then playing on the OASIS. He needed a break. He looked beside him and saw that his brother Rodney was sitting on their couch with his OASIS headset on his face. He was talking to someone. Mark decided to turn off his console and head into the kitchen for something to eat. He saw that his sister was home.

"Hey Mark." She said.

"Hey Alex." He responded. "How was school?"

"It was good." She replied. "We learned about the HMS Bounty and the mutiny that happened on the ship."

"I remember reading that book." Mark said. "It was good."

"Yeah, we have a book report to do on that book." She said. "It's due Monday."

"If you need help, just ask." Mark said.

"No I'm good." She replied.

Alexandra and Mark ate together, and then Rodney came into the kitchen almost as they finished. They made coffee or tea for each other and sat down together to talk to each other. Parzival and the rest of the High Five were right; everyone needed to live in the real world. Mark and his family knew this, so they enjoyed spending time with each other and not be on the OASIS all the time. As they finished, they went to do their homework.

* * *

Vladislav ripped his headset off his face, swearing in Russian. Three people had achieved the impossible. They had achieved the Easter eggs that were hidden from other players. Vlad was happy that he had achieved it, but he had wanted to be the only person to achieve the eggs. He had to share what he had with Tridosk/Lewis Rogers because Lewis was his best friend, but as for the High Five and the other allies including Jack; he wanted nothing more than to crush them. Now that Jack and Art3mis had the Easter egg of Immortality, there would be no way he could threaten them. He could threaten their friends, however. Maybe that was the key. Threaten their friends if they did not give up their eggs to him. He needed to think this over; would they even want to meet him again after what had happened? Whatever the case, he needed to think it over. He turned off his console and walked over to his bed, and fell down onto the soft mattress. He picked up his cellphone and set the alarm and then drifted into peaceful oblivion.

* * *

Jack was online again later that night. He walked through the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and entered _the Vault_. This was where he kept his most prized positions in the OASIS. He made his way past shelves of items that he collected. He had a Dragon Shaped Jade-Coloured statue that when used created a shield over the entire ship. It was inactive. He passed several suits of armour that he had used in the past. None of them were up to the standard that his current suit possessed but were meant to be a reminder of adventures that he had with his friends. He passed other items that were collectibles. There were statues, spells locked up in boxes, and even weapons. In the middle of the ship was a special table. Jack had won the first key for the first Easter egg when Halliday had died and let the whole world know about it. He had saved the table for the Easter egg, and now had three to put on it. He sighed. He was now the most complete player in the OASIS. He had a ship filled with items, unlimited ammunition, a boost in vehicle speed, and now immortality. He made his way back to the bridge of his ship and sat on the Captain's chair. He put in special coordinates and the ship's thrusters came online. All systems were green for GO. He entered a new world that held the random Chat rooms that needed special codes to get in.

The _Tensa Zangetsu_ came close to one in particular. Aech's chat room was there, and Jack made his way to the main hangar and found that his robot crew were almost finished repairing his X-wing. However, it was not finished yet. He needed to fly down to the chat room. He looked around and saw another ship that he could use. He saw a spaceship that he had won in a game of chance. It was a one person craft called the _BTA Fighter_ from the film _Enemy Mine_ which was released in 1985. Jack hopped in and fired it up. He liked this craft because it was pretty quick. He had modified it and took away its weapons. It only had a shield program that deflected energy bolts, bullets, and flames that other players might shoot at it. With the boost in speed from the Easter egg that he won, it was the perfect ship to go to and from certain places just like Aech's chat room.

He landed the ship outside the entrance to the chat room. He disembarked from the ship and he knocked on the door. Aech answered it.

"Hey Jack." Aech said. "Welcome to my chat room, The Basement, or as some people call it, the Garage."

"Thanks Aech." Jack said. "Any luck analyzing the Easter eggs?"

"The coding for the eggs is really specific." Aech said as she ushered Jack into the chat room. "I've been analyzing it for some time now and cannot find any way to share the eggs this time. It seems only you, Artemis and Lynx have the abilities that the eggs grant. No one else can have them."

"Well that sucks." Jack said. "I was hoping that we could share the eggs with our friends."

"You can drive vehicles with them, you can give them ammunition, but I don't know how immortality will work out for you."

"Thanks Aech. Where's the rest of the High Five?"

"Parzival and Artemis are spending time with each other off of the OASIS. Shoto and Daito are off playing somewhere else. Why?"

"No reason, I just thought they would be here."

"Parzival and Artemis love each other. They would rather spend time with each other than spend their time in here."

"Oh okay. I wish I could find someone like that."

"Maybe you will. I think it might be time to expand our clan. Would you and your friends like to be part of our clan?"

"I would like to, but I'm not sure about the rest of my friends. I'm going to have to talk to them about it."

"Of course, take your time."

"Alright. So do you need help with anything?"

"No I'm fine. Now about the console for your friend; I believe we can send one to his house."

"Really? I would really appreciate it."

"No worries."

With that, Jack gave Aech Justin's address in the real world so that Aech and the High Five could send him a console for the OASIS. Justin Rihaz would be receiving an opportunity to join the OASIS. Jack could not be happier.

* * *

Mark, Tom, and John met at Justin's house a few days later. They had learned that the High Five sent Justin a console with the Headset. He had found the package on his doorstep and quickly called his friends to celebrate. He was reluctant to be sure but he had to admit that he could not wait to play with his friends. He had to make his own Avatar to join the game. He started by selecting the type of Avatar he wanted to play as. He chose to play as a six feet, five inches tall Caucasian male with shoulder length dark brown hair and a scruffy beard. He wore black boots, chain mail, black pants, and a green shirt over his chain mail. He also chose a long sword as his primary melee weapon. He chose an M14 as his primary weapon. Now he needed to compete in different games to collect coins to buy more items and level up. He chose the name _Arathorn, Son of Anamon_. Mark gave Justin the coordinates for his ship _Tensa Zangetsu_ and the code to enter into it. Mark allowed Justin access to his vehicles so that he could race to earn coins. He allowed him access to weapons as well. There were also maps to different places in the OASIS. He could go dancing. He could play different games. He could talk to people who lived in other countries. He could learn other languages from teachers who were online. It was overwhelming. He could do everything and anything. It was like being on the internet. He input his credentials such as his driver's licence, and his student identification. The OASIS opened up different applications that he could access according to his age and what people his age was accessing. He was the oldest of the group and was eighteen years old since his birthday was in January and it was April currently. The rest of his friends were seventeen years old and had birthdays in the summer and fall.

"Thank you guys so much." Justin told his friends. "We'll be great together."

"I have something else to tell you guys." Mark said. "I gave it some thought and was wondering if we could become a clan. Maybe even join the High Five."

"Would they want to?" John asked.

"We worked well together to get the Easter eggs." Mark said. "I don't see why they wouldn't like to come together."

"Okay, so next time we're on the OASIS, let's ask them." John said. "We can tell them about Justin."

"Yeah, I'll tell you about the _Tensa Zangetsu_ when we're in the OASIS, Justin." Mark told his friend. "It's my chat room that I created."

"Nice." Justin said. "It's like the ship from Toonami right?"

"It's something like that yeah." Mark said. "It's filled with my prized positions that I have on the OASIS."

"Yeah, we go there sometimes just to fix our cars and stuff." Tom said. "Mark can fix anything."

"Almost anything," Mark told his friend. "I have robots on my ship that can fix things. I got them as a prize from a game I won a long time ago."

"Since you guys are over here, did you guys want to look at a movie or something?" Justin asked. "I have The Boondock Saints."

"I haven't watched that movie in a long time." John said.

"Yeah I'm in." Tom said.

"Let's do it." Mark agreed.

And so the four friends decided to watch a movie together.

* * *

Lynx/Vladislav went over it in his head. To get to the second egg, the other players used a clan of more than twenty people and the fire power of a big ship that Vlad had never seen before, which was the _Tensa Zangetsu_. It had used two Mac rounds to penetrate his shield. Vladislav had no idea that something like that existed before in the OASIS. He had no idea what to do about it. Did it belong to Art3mis or Jack_100292402? If it did belong to one of them, then it was possible that it had unlimited ammunition. It did not matter anymore as there were no more Easter eggs to obtain for the time being. Vladislav decided to just let it go and hack into the OASIS. He fixed his massive proton cannon and wrote codes that would make his vehicles impervious to damage. He analyzed his Easter eggs, and hacked into them. He needed a way to defeat his enemies. He saw that Jack_100292402 and Art3mis were his competitors and needed to be destroyed. He created a special revolver handgun that fired six rounds. He had unlimited ammo, and this gun was important. With it, he could destroy Jack_100292402 and Art3mis. Being immortals, they may let their guard down and not wear shields or armour anymore. Surely they would not come up with a way to destroy him. Their naiveté would get the best of them. The High Five had taken all of the Easter eggs that the OASIS had to offer them. They kept winning and it seemed that they would not be sharing with anyone else. Vladislav wanted to win. He wanted to be the only one. This seemed to be the only way. He also did not run this past Lewis/Tridosk as Lewis seemed to be in their league as well. He would let Lewis know eventually, but as for now, Vladislav was on his own.

* * *

Mark was at another person's house as they were doing homework together. There was no time to go on the OASIS today as they had an assignment to do in English class. They needed to come up with a story and portray it in written format with some pictures as well. Not being artistically inclined, Mark was having a hard time with it, but he was counting on the other person to help him through it. This person was also a friend and had a profile on the OASIS. He was part of the Master Chief Clan who followed the _Halo_ franchise as _Halo_ had spawned many sequels and several prequels. This person's name was David Miranda. On the OASIS, he was known as _Alpha Wolf Master Chief_ and they wore a blue version of _Master Chief's_ armour from _Halo 5._ They were a perfectionist, so for their project everything had to be measured out. Each panel of the story needed to be drawn with precise lines. David was a heavyset person and girls did not find him attractive. However, game players complimented him on how much of a professional he was when taking care of other players by sniping them many meters away. He was one of the best, and hated losing a lot.

They also had another partner but she had work that day at a coffee shop. Her portion would be sent to their emails whenever she was ready to send it. Her name was Krystle Levesque. She also had a profile on the OASIS as _Princess Melody of Ajax_. She was not a fighter and received coins by beating challenges like painting, drawing or creating something really special. She spoke to other players about their lives and loved children as well. She was a bit of a tomboy, and was not that attractive in the real world. Her figure was blocky and not quite that curvy. Her boyfriend was a tall and lanky Caucasian male who excelled at Basketball. He played sports games on the OASIS as well. His name was Scott Michaels. His name on the OASIS was Sc0tt_M!cha3l5. He normally sat with Krystle and her friends, but liked to also smoke weed with other males in their grade. They all went to the same High School of course. No one besides the High Five, Lynx/Vladislav, Tridosk/Lewis, John/Gadanza, and Tom knew about the three Easter eggs. Mark thought that it might be necessary to make sure that no one else knew about the eggs unless they were told by Morrow or someone of high authority. There was still the question on how did Lynx and the High Five become aware of each other and the Easter eggs. Mark was happy that he had achieved them and became known to the heroes of the OASIS as someone who could help them.

"So after we're finished, did you want to log in to the OASIS and play for a bit?" David asked Mark.

"I don't have my console on me." Mark said. "You can go ahead if you want."

"I have my sister's console if you want to use it." David said.

"Yeah, but her console does not have the information that I saved on my console." Mark said. "There are things on my console that I saved, like my spaceship, my weapons, my avatar and other stuff."

"You can log in to a temporary profile." David pleaded. "Come on man, I want to face you."

"Yeah okay, as long as we get this done first." Mark said.

"Yes." David said.

They took an hour to sketch out their pictures and the script that was supposed to go with the drawings. They logged into the OASIS. David and Mark took David's sister's console, headset and treadmill like device from her room and took them to the basement where they were going to log in. They logged into the OASIS and Mark picked a random Avatar as a guest. He chose a sci-fi avatar with armour similar to Spartan Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor. He chose a Caucasian male loadout as well. The avatar was six feet seven inches tall. David looked into his inventory to see what weapons he could give Mark.

"What type of weapon do you usually use?" David asked Mark.

"I usually use a sword for the melee weapon and a combo machine gun, grenade launcher," Mark told David. "But any assault rifle will be okay."

"Alright." David said. "I will let you use three weapons; an assault rifle, my twelve gage shotgun, and a pack of grenades."

"Okay, thanks." Mark said.

And then they loaded a map to play against each other on. There were three structures combined with a platform. There were three levels to each structure, a basement, a midlevel where they came to do battle and a top level where they could take positions to snipe each other out. There were certain positions where they could retrieve ammunition and more grenades.

"Ready?" The computer said.

"Ready." David said.

"Let's go." Mark said.

"Countdown to slayer match in five, four, three, two, one, slayer," The computer said.

They emerged on the map across from each other in the basement of two structures. They took the stairs up to the middle floor. David took the extra staircase up to the third floor of the structure as Mark ran to the opposite structure.

TSEER!

A sniper rifle rang out. Mark fell to his knees, his shields going down. He looked all around him and looked to his left at the third structure. He pulled out his assault rifle but was taken out by a second shot from a sniper rifle.

"Boom, Headshot!" David said with glee.

Mark's Avatar died and he respawned in the same place as before. He changed tactics and ran to the top of his structure. He looked out and saw David moving to the middle of the platform to Mark's body and started tea-bagging it. Mark threw a grenade and jumped. The grenade exploded close to David's position. Mark used the opportunity to start shooting with his shotgun. Mark threw another grenade and used his assault rifle to detonate it in mid-air. He started shooting once more at David, who ducked, dodged and rolled away from the middle of the area. David pulled out a missile launcher and fired it at Mark.

"Damn it." Mark seethed as David laughed.

Mark respawned and then his cellphone began to ring. They had to pause the game as Mark answered it.

"Hello, Mark?" said Krystle. "I finished my shift, should I come over to David's so that we can work on the assignment?"

"Hey Dave, it is Krystle." Mark told David. "She wants to know if she should come over so we can continue doing the assignment."

"I guess so." David said, "Let's play a little more until she gets here."

"Hey Krystle." Mark said. "Dave said you can come over any time. We'll be here."

"Okay, see you guys soon." Krystle said, and with that she hung up.

"I'm going to kill you." Mark said as he put on the headset once more and entered the OASIS to fight David once more.

 **GoldDragonZ** : That'll be it for now. Please feel free to read and review if you like or hate it.


	6. Chapter 6

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

Chapter Six

 **GoldDragonZ:** Please feel free to read my story about a new character Jack, his friends, family, and the High Five as they battle different foes. For now, the main Antagonist's name is Vladislav Volkovskis, also known in the OASIS as _Lynx_.

It was Sunday Morning. The Patel's Mark, Rodney, and Alexandra woke up at 8:00 am to go to church with their mother and father who were home for the weekend. They had also had dinner together the day before and then Mark had to go to David Miranda's to do the project. Their church started service at 10:00 am but they only had one washroom for the five of them to use as their second one was broken and leaked. They had a third one in their basement but it did not have a vent to funnel steam out of. They needed to have quick showers as well because their water heater could only contain a certain amount of water at a time. They sat down together for breakfast as well.

"So, Mark, how was the project last night?" Mrs. Patel asked her son.

"It was okay." Mark replied. "I'm not that great of an artist but I think the story I came up with was good. One of my partners, David, is a perfectionist so he handled the drawings and panels. My other partner, Krystle, came late because she was working at _The Coffee Shop_."

"Oh, I love _The Coffee Shop's_ coffee." Mr. Patel, Mark's father chimed in as he buttered a bagel. "Must see if she can get coupons or something for us."

"Okay dad." Mark said.

"Rodney, how was school?" Mrs. Patel asked her other son.

"It was good." Rodney said.

"What did you do?" Mrs. Patel asked.

"Recess, lunch and played." Rodney said, just kidding around with his mother. "No, I have several projects due in the next couple of weeks. I'm probably not going to play on the OASIS that much until I get everything done."

"That's very good of you." Mr. Patel said, and then he turned to Alexandra. "Hey Princess, how are you doing?"

"School is okay." She said. "We learned about BEDMAS. BEDMAS is an acronym for Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction. For an equation, you first do the math that's contained in the brackets. Next you handle the exponents. And then whatever comes first, division or multiplication, you handle that. It doesn't matter what comes first. And then you handle addition and subtraction. It's easy. In English, we learned about Homonyms. They are words that sound and look the same but mean different things. It's like _their_ and _there_. One is spelt t-h-e-i-r while one is spelt t-h-e-r-e. Their meanings are different."

"Wow," Their mother said. "You guys are swallowing your hate for school and getting work done. I like that."

"Yeah, don't forget to do your chores, though, and play the piano." Their father said. "Now let's go to church."

* * *

After they had come home from church, Mark did the laundry for his whole family. This included sorting out the clothes into different colours, putting them in the washer, putting in detergent and fabric softener, press the commands, let the machine do its thing, take out the clothes, put them in the dryer, put in a dryer sheet, and then press the commands for the dryer to work. He ended by folding up the clothes. Rodney did the mowing of the lawn. Alexandra washed the dishes, swept and mopped the floors. Mrs. Patel did the dusting, weeded the gardens. Mr. Patel cleaned the two cars that they owned and made sure all the fluids were topped up. Next, the three siblings waited their turn to play the piano. They also studied piano music theory and history at the same time. Rodney and Mark were almost at the same point, while Alexandra was at a lower grade. They would help each other as well. They could use the music course as a high school credit, so it was worth while doing. That meant that for Grade 12 in high school, they would have three or four spares instead of just two. Usually you had to do four courses a day in the lower grades grade nine, ten, and eleven. In grade twelve, you only had to do three, and now Mark and his siblings only needed to do two. Mark chose this time to do volunteer work for the school such as cleaning the grounds as all high school students needed to complete 40 hours of community service. It was the month of April, so he would be almost finished this year in a few more weeks. Next month, it was prom. Mark did not know if he should be going as he never really spoke romantically to a girl before. Could he try it? Mark did not know. As for that Sunday, he would be finishing up his homework, and then maybe perhaps going on the OASIS for a little bit.

* * *

Amira Qad was an Arabic Muslim girl who went to the same school as Mark Patel. She had been one of his school mates since Elementary School when they were in Grade Seven, or when they were twelve years old when she first came to the city. She was not as Orthodox as other Muslim people, so she did not wear a Hijab. She prayed though. She wanted to be the best that she could be. She also had an avatar on the OASIS. Her name there was _Princess May._ In real life, she was a pretty girl, and wore black framed glasses. She wore the school uniform daily, while during days she was not in school she wore dresses that looked pretty. Her favorite colour was bright bluish green. She would often wear that colour whenever she was not in the uniform. Her Avatar in the OASIS was a Caucasian female with Jade coloured eyes, long black hair, and wore a bright blueish green dress. She would play racing games online and wore a blueish green jumpsuit and helmet whenever she raced. She also participated in beauty pageants online. She would do up her hair on her Avatar and change the dress. There would always be something blue or bright green on her outfit, be it a gem stone, a jacket, her dress, or something else. Her makeup would be done to make her skin shimmer brightly.

She had been in several classes together with Mark, however he seemed preoccupied. Did he notice her, or did he not really care? In any case, she wished that he would talk to her. And then she learned that he had a favorite movie called _The Mark of Zorro_ , starring Tyrone Power. The movie came out in 1940 and was a classic. During Halloween that year, she had dressed up as Zorro. During lunch, the student council voted on the best costumes. She had hoped that he would notice, but Mark did not seem to even care. However, he was surprised that she had dressed that way. Secretly, Mark had known that Amira liked him. He wanted to speak to her badly, however for some reason he could not bring himself to do it. Was it fear? He just did not feel good enough. Sure, he was a Captain of a ship on the OASIS, but in the real world, he was a nobody. There were jocks in his school who seemed to rule the roost, so to speak, and get the girls. They did not need to pretend to be anyone else. They did not need to use the OASIS at all. Mark was not very good at sports. Sure, he was lean and very skinny, but that did not mean he was muscular. At the very least, he did not feel attractive. He hated himself, but on the OASIS, he had made his Avatar to be the very best thing he could think of. He spoke to people on the OASIS. He felt that he could hide who he really was; a loser who could not speak to girls. He was not that smart either.

In his school, there were three levels of courses. University grade courses were geared towards the very brightest students. College courses were for people who could not get into University type of courses. And then there were workplace courses that were geared to get students ready for the real world. Mark was in the College stream of courses, and did have several University courses. That was how he and Amira shared classes. The best class they had together was called Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. The second class they had was a Graphic Design course where you used computer programs to design flyers, documents, websites and GIFs. They also shared the same spare period.

Out of his friends, Tom Calcio was in Workplace geared courses and needed a Teaching Assistant to help him. John Matthews was in the College stream, and Justin Rihaz was in the University stream. Although they were all different, they had grown close because they all had similar personalities. But, Amira did not care that Mark was not in most of her classes. She liked the way he looked. She liked how quiet and shy he was. He was so sweet and she could not tear her eyes off him. He seemed like something was always bothering him. He seemed upset most of the time, although she never saw anyone be mean to him. What could his troubles be? Amira wanted to get to know him, however she was like him, and could not bring herself to speak to him either. There had to be a way for them to come together, but how could they do it? Graduation was close by, and by the time, they might not have the chance to talk at the very least. There was only one thing that they could do; meet on the OASIS. It was against the rules to tell people your AVATAR name so it might be difficult to do that, however Parzival had already shown that you can break the rules by telling the whole world who he was.

Amira decided to speak to several people about finding out who on the OASIS Mark really was. She told some of her friends during the weekend as they were working together on a project for school. They understood where she was coming from. One of her friends, Jessica Walsh was going out with someone that used to go to elementary school with Mark. His name was Tyler Biscuit. They had spoken and worked together, but Tyler could not say that he was a friend of Mark's. They respected each other, but did not go the same parties or hang out anywhere. Tyler was nice to Mark. Mark was, as always quiet and distant, as if he was always thinking about something else. He did not smile often. He was strange, and no one knew what they could say to him. He was not brave, or strong in real life, but on the OASIS, he was all of that and more. As Jack_100292402, he was everything he thought a man could be. He leapt into battle, and relished the thought of winning races and competing with other people. He could battle with the best players and win. Amira liked the real him though. She liked how he was soft spoken and gentle in real life. She liked how he worked diligently on homework whenever he had free time. Amira just wanted him to acknowledge how much she liked him, but she needed help on how to talk to him. Tyler decided that he would talk to Mark's friends on Amira's behalf

* * *

"Hey you're Tom, right?" Tyler Biscuit said to Tom as they were heading to the cafeteria for lunch. "You're friends with Mark Patel, right?"

"Why are you talking to me?" Tom asked defensively. "I don't know who you are."

"One of my friends wants to talk to Mark." Tyler said. "Is there a way for you to get Mark to speak to her?"

"It's a girl?" Tom said in disbelief. "No girls have ever wanted to talk to any of me or my friends. What does she want from Mark? Does she want to fuck him?"

"Well…it's complicated." Tyler said. "She just wants to talk to him."

"She can use the OASIS." Tom said. "That's the best way to get in touch with Mark. His name online is Jack underscore 1-0-0-2-9-2-4-0-2. She can just send him a message and he will find her."

"Okay thanks Tom." Tyler said, and then he left Tom alone.

"Who was that?" Justin said as Tom joined him for lunch.

"It was a guy from our elementary school." Tom replied. "His friend wants to talk to Mark."

"What about?" Justin asked.

"She wants to suck his dick." Tom said jokingly.

"Damn it, Nappa." Justin retaliated. "I hope she knows what she's doing."

"What do you mean?" Tom asked.

"I just don't want to see Mark get hurt." Justin said. "He's an awesome guy."

"Some of the other people don't think so."

"Yeah, some people think he's full of himself, but we know him. He's just shy."

* * *

Mark unlocked the door to his home and walked in. He took off his shoes and placed his backpack on the floor. He took out his lunch container and cleaned it in the kitchen sink. Next, we went and changed into his X1 suit and then went into the living room where his piano and OASIS console were. He played the piano for one hour and then put on his gloves and Virtual Reality Headset. He then jacked into the OASIS. His Avatar spawned on the deck of the _Tensa Zangetsu_. His Heads-up display indicated that he had a message. He opened it up.

 _Dear Jack._ It read. _I have been watching you from afar for a long while. We go to the same school. Please forgive your friend because he gave me your OASIS name. Rather, one of my friends' boyfriend spoke to Tom and Tom told him your name. Tom said that this is the best way to reach you. I would like to meet you either here in the OASIS, or in real life somewhere, anywhere. I am looking forward to your response,_

 _with warm regards,_

 _Princess May_

Jack_100292402/Mark Patel read the note one more time. The name did not ring a bell. He took off his headset and then went up stairs to his room which he shared with his siblings. He took out his yearbook from last year and looked for anyone with the name May. There was no one with that name. And then something flickered in Mark's mind. Could it be Amira trying to reach him? She was the only person who seemed to be interested in him, but Mark was not sure. Mark went back downstairs and turned on his OASIS console one more time and jacked in. He started writing a reply.

 _Dear Princess May._

 _I don't know who you are. I have been told by my parents to be vigilant against people I meet here on the OASIS or the internet because people might not be who they say they are. Do we go to the same school? If we do, I will meet you after school tomorrow at the library. I hope that's okay with you. Please let me know if you have other plans or you want to meet some other place._

 _Truly yours,_

 _Jack._

Mark/Jack sighed. He didn't know what to think. For years, he had wanted and prayed to meet his wife sometime soon. Could this, be it? Had God answered his prayer? Mark did not know what to think. All he knew was that it was not time to be on the OASIS. He had to prepare to meet this person. He did not want to meet them empty handed so he decided to go to the grocery store to get a bouquet of flowers. He hoped whoever she was liked the flowers. He knew that he was getting ahead of himself. She had not even replied, so it was a waiting game. He would be there the day after and if she showed up, he would know. Mark went to the kitchen table and began doing his homework. He needed to get his mind off the letter that was written to him from someone he did not even know.

* * *

The next morning, Mark looked at the school uniform. What could he do to make it more presentable? He took a shower, shaved, put on skin lotion, sprayed cologne and combed his hair. He ironed his shirt and pants, and put them on. He took out a black tie and tied it around his neck, under his collar. He took out his dress shoes, and shined them up. He cleaned his glasses. He looked at his watch and cleaned that as well. He left home early and made it to school before anyone else was there to see what he brought. He went to the secretary's office and spoke to one of the secretary to see if he could leave the flowers with them.

"Aww, that's cute." The secretary said to her comrades about Mark. "You kids have fun after school. Remember, to get the girl, just be yourself. She's going to be as nervous as you if not more. Girls are human so you shouldn't feel nervous."

Mark did not know what to say, so he just said good bye with the assurance that the secretary would take care of his flowers. He went through his day very preoccupied. He was thinking about girls and could not stop thinking about sexual activity. Finally, the final bell rang. He picked up his books and stuffed them in his bag and left the cafeteria where he was spending his spare after cleaning with the school personnel. He made his way to the front office. Lost in thought, he walked right passed Amira, who was going to say something to him right then and there but the flow of students pushed her along. He went into the office and picked up the flowers from the secretary's office and went up to the library. There he waited, reading a book to try and calm himself down. His hands were sweaty. His heart was racing. He kept looking at the clock. It was 10 to 3:00 pm. And so, he waited.

* * *

 _This was a mistake._ Amira thought to herself. _He never even knew I was going to talk to him when I walked passed him._

She stood right in front of the doors to the library where all the computer work stations and books were kept. The librarian's name was Mr. Mosby. He was a very nice guy and very approachable. Amira breathed in and sighed. She had spoken to Mr. Mosby before about many things, but never about speaking to boys. She only spoke to her friends about it, and they were constantly joking around.

Now was the time to decide. Should she go in, or should she wait for a different time? She wanted to speak to him and tell him how she felt. She wanted to so bad. She was squeezing the strap of her knapsack so bad that her knuckles were turning white. She had prepared in the morning, like how Mark prepared. She had a shower, washed her hair, combed and dried her hair, made sure her uniform was well pressed, and put on makeup. Her family never allowed her to use makeup to go to school, but surely this would qualify as a special occasion as she was preparing to do something right after school. She slipped off her glasses and put it in her breast pocket of her blouse that she was wearing underneath her vest with the symbol of the school crest.

 _I am not Amira Qad_. She thought to herself. _I am one of the best racers in the OASIS, Princess May_.

She opened the door and prepared to greet Mark with a stunning smile; the best that she could muster at that moment. She opened the door and looked around. She saw Mark sitting at a table readying _To Kill a Mockingbird_. He had his glasses on and was really into the book. He looked up as he felt her gaze on him, and then his eyes widened. He closed the book and stood up. He had the flowers on the table in front of him and he presented them to her.

"Princess May?" Mark asked, and then said shyly: "Amira…hi."

"Mark." She said, "Are those for me?"

"Yes." Mark said. "Do you like flowers?"

"Yes." She said as she walked up to him.

He brought them up and gave them to Amira. She blushed, and so did he. He scratched the back of his head.

"Do you like books?" Mark asked.

"Yeah," She said. "Didn't we do a book report for _To Kill a Mockingbird_ In grade ten English class _?_ "

"Yeah, I know," Mark said. "I like the book."

"Me too." Amira said. "You remind me of Atticus Finch."

"I wish I was half the man that Atticus Finch is." Mark revealed. "I'm not that good at anything. I'm not good at sports. I don't know if I can be good for you."

"Listen Mark." Amira said. "No one is perfect. Michael Jordan was the best basketball player but he was lousy as a baseball player. Find something that you are good at, or interested in and you will find out what your purpose is."

"Why do you like me, Amira?" Mark asked, his eyes swelling with tears. "I'm not good…"

"You're so cute." Amira said. "I just want to hug you."

She came up to him. Mark was three inches taller than Amira. She hugged him. All Mark could do was hug her back.

"Amira." Mark said. "Did you want to go out for hot chocolate or something?" Mark asked.

"Yes, Mark." She said happily. "I would like that very much."

And so, the happy couple said good bye to Mr. Mosby and made their way to the nearest coffee shop where they could also buy hot chocolate or almost anything that they would like to drink. Mark bought himself a cup of coffee, and bought an iced coffee for Amira. They chose a booth to sit in and started talking to each other. Mark was still very nervous, and everything he was saying was very simple. Over time, he started feeling comfortable with Amira. They spoke about their friends and their family. Soon it was 5:00 pm. Mark got up and offered his hand to Amira, who took it. He helped her out of the booth and they walked to the entrance to the coffee shop. Mark went in and hugged the girl, who graciously reciprocated. They went their separate ways, Mark going to his home, Amira going to hers.

* * *

"So, did you rock out with your cock out?" Tom_001 asked Jack_100292402.

They were in the OASIS. Tom and Jack were playing together in a free for all game where they were trying to kill as many people as they could. They had each other's backs and just wasted other players.

"It was just the first time that we ever spoke." Jack said. "Watch your back!"

An explosion tripped Tom up and he came crashing down onto the floor. Jack ran over to Tom and fired his assault rifle/grenade launcher/shotgun at the enemies that were closing in on them.

"Piece of shit." Jack muttered as he fired a grenade from the launcher.

He fired several bullets and ended his volley with a blast from his shotgun. Two players died and respawned at different locations.

"All that ammo…" Jack muttered although he knew that he could never run out of bullets.

He was not in a good mood. He had told his parents about the girl, Amira, who wanted to be with him. They responded by saying that it was not the right time for a girlfriend. He needed to focus on his school work to get into a respectful college. In Canada Universities are higher tier institutions, and colleges are second tier. They were not happy that he was not doing majority of University courses and hoped that by doing well in college, he could transfer into University for something. And they did not want him going to any school; he had to be better than what he was right then. He needed to find a way to be more than mediocre. Amira deserved better from him. So, there was also the dilemma of staying for one extra year of high school. This would mean that he would do courses that were University Level so that he could get enough credits to get into University instead of wasting time in College. He needed to play on the OASIS less, and pay attention more in class and do more homework. His parents did not believe in friends either. They could never know how much this hurt Mark, as he desired to be the best Christian that he could be and honour his parents. His parents did not realize that for people to mature naturally, they needed to be around people more, especially at the age that Mark/ Jack was. It was vital at the time in life where he would be making big life decisions. Who did he want to be, and what did he want from life? He needed guidance from someone, but there was no one that came to mind.

"Fuck you motherfuckers!" Jack screamed running into the heat of battle as several players tried taking each other out.

Jack sprinted out and pulled out his two desert eagles. He shot two bullets and got two headshots without even trying. He was strong. He was fast. He was a professional killer online. He was brave, and when people were trying their best to conserve ammunition and save their skin, he was out there braving what was to come. He already had immortality so it was not fair to the other players that he was doing so well at the game. Jack revelled in it. He was in control and he liked the feeling. He pulled out his assault rifle combination and put away his two pistols. He screamed and shot at the foes that were trying to kill him and Tom. He was a demon. He was angry, and this was the only way he knew how to relieve himself of stress. He needed to kill as many enemies as he could. He was a warrior. He threw down a smoke grenade. He threw several flash bang grenades as well to disorient his enemies. He aimed the shotgun at one enemy and shot one shell into the enemy. He used a special type of grenade, threw it at the enemy, and shielded Tom from the shrapnel as the grenade exploded. Tom was using a AA 12 gage shotgun and was blasting away at other people.

They worked well together. And then suddenly, one of the other players had enough of Jack and Tom and decided to pull out the ultimate weapon. They pulled out a massive war machine. It landed and its leg landed on Jack. They had done this on purpose. Immortal though he may be, Jack could no longer play as he was pinned underneath the machine Tom ran and ducked under cover as the machine took aim and fired several missiles at him. His cover exploded and he was knocked down. He swapped weapons to a missile launcher. He aimed as high as he could and fired at the machine. It bounced off the hull and landed several feet away from Tom. It exploded, killing another person. Everyone took aim and started firing their weapons at the huge vehicle that had Jack pinned.

 _Shit, Tom's going to die if I don't do something._ Jack thought as he opened his Heads-up Display and activated his Mac Cannon on his ship, the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He took aim and waited for the ship to power up. He waited until it was at 15% and fired a rather weak Mac round. He wanted to break open the vehicle that pinned him down, but he did not want to kill Tom in the process as well. He closed his eyes as he felt the ground shake beneath him as the Mac round penetrate the atmosphere and ram down on the vehicle that pinned him underneath its foot. It took a step back, its top blown open. Tom took the moment to activate a jetpack. He flew up over the machine and used Spawn's Hell Chains to rip open the chase of the massive vehicle. The occupants looked up in fear.

"Surprise motherfuckers." Tom said as he tossed in a mini-nuclear grenade into the vehicle.

Tom zipped through the air and the explosion from on top of the vehicle was deafening. Like a nut, the vehicle cracked open, sending molten, radioactive remains on the battle field. Jack got up. He took out his sword and began running towards one of the enemies that were closest to him. He ran and with a flick of the wrist, disarmed his foe. He ran his sword through the enemy and twisted the sword, transforming the Avatar into coins that Jack picked up. Jack pulled out a sniper rifle and looked at his Heads Ups Display. He saw markers that showed where his enemies were per the nearest location to his position. He saw one person taking out a Jeep and got in. Jack wasted no time and shot at the driver seat. His bullets passed through the windshield, slamming into the driver, turning the Avatar into coins as well. The jeep disappeared at the same time. Jack aimed once more to another enemy that were closest to him. The enemy had changed his form and was now a massive Kraken like animal from _The Clash of the Titans._ It was massive. Jack aimed and fired at the beast's eyes. The animal screamed in pain, and Jack heard through his headset that the player was cursing him out as well. Jack pulled out a missile launcher and began firing it at the Kraken, which began coming after him. He pulled out his Optimus Primal skin and entered it. He activated his Jets and began flying over the monster. He fired several rounds at the beast's head. The Kraken brought its arm up to try and swat Jack from the sky. Jack activated his shoulder cannons and began firing once more at the Kraken. The Kraken raised one of its tentacles and brought it down over Jack, who could not dodge quick enough.

 _How is it seeing me?_ Jack thought. _I took out its eyes._ He felt the pressure of something swatting him from the sky. It was not painful, it just felt like something warm pressing against his body. His Heads-Up Display said something different. He should have been feeling pain or receiving damage. However, with the Easter Egg made it impossible for Jack to die. He was slammed onto the ground. He transformed into Gorilla mode and picked up the massive tentacle. He ripped the tentacle apart and then transformed once more into robot mode. He used his swords to cut up the beast. He fired his shoulder cannons at the beast's head. He flew, up above the Kraken. He activated a mod that he applied to his Optimus Primal skin. His chest opened and revealed a cannon that was bigger than his shoulder cannons.

His cannon on his chest began counting down from ten. The Kraken lashed out wildly. It could no longer see him. Jack aimed his chest cannon and fired a blue ball of energy right through the Kraken's head, killing it, turning the player into coins. The amount of power that the shot used deactivated the Optimus Primal skin, so Jack turned back to normal. He fell and landed on the ground. He pulled out his two Desert Eagles and began running. The other players were busy trying to kill each other, no one even noticed him. He looked for Tom, who was fighting against someone playing as Aquaman, wielding a trident. Tom was using a long sword and a Glock to try and wound his opponent, who was powerful. Jack pulled out another skin, this time of _Iron Man's Hulk Buster_ armor. He used mini-missiles and fired them at Aquaman. The avatar burst into flames, screaming as death overcame him. He turned into coins, which Tom more than willingly picked up.

"Finders keepers." Tom said.

"Let's get a move on." Jack told his friend. "Activate your bike and follow me."

Tom took out his _Ghost Rider_ motorcycle and climbed on. Jack flew as Tom rode the motorcycle. They found someone in a Venom skin battling a Spartan from Halo. The bullets did little to hinder the avatar wearing the Symbiote. Also, the suite that the Spartan was wearing could not be punctured by the spikes that the Venom character was trying to use to kill the enemy with. Jack used two tank missiles to get their attention. Tom did the trick where he rode on the back wheel of the bike and raised the front wheel in the air. He brought down the wheel on the Venom player, who screeched in pain and shock. Jack landed right on top of the Spartan and threw away the player's assault rifle that he had been using. Jack grabbed the player's head and yanked off his helmet. The player was angry, pinned against the floor, unable to move or do anything. Jack pulled out a plasma grenade and pressed it to the player's chest. He leapt off him and the explosion destroyed the enemy.

In the meantime, Tom's flaming bike burned through the Venom player's chest, killing it. Venom roared as his body disintegrated. Tom picked up all the coins that were there to collect, as did Jack from the Spartan. Suddenly, Jack's Heads-Up Display started pinging indicating he was getting a call or voice message. He put out a time up display to stop the other players from attacking him. Tom did the same, curious to see what was going on.

"Hello, Mark?" Amira asked as her avatar, _Princess May_. "I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at a dance party that's about to start."

"I'm not really good at dancing, but yeah, we can go." Jack said. "It will be fun."

"Okay, I'm sending you the code to get to the dance hall." Amira said. "I can't wait to see you."

"Me too." Jack/Mark said, gritting his teeth as he knew what his parents would expect of him. "I will see you then."

"Okay." She said, and then they hung up.

"Was that her?" Tom asked when Jack turned to face him. "Are you actually going to go dancing?"

"Yeah that was Amira from school." Jack replied. "I'm going to go meet her and see what we can do together."

"Just give us five more minutes." Tom whined. "We haven't won yet."

"Okay, Yeah." Jack said, with mirth. "Let's do this."

* * *

Jack spawned on board his ship the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He went to the Captain's Quarters to pick out something good to wear for dancing. He picked out black dress shoes with no laces, black pants, a blue dress shirt, a black tie and a black blazer. He looked at his avatar, and was pleased with how it looked. However, he needed to do something about the hair. A Top Knot would not do. He decided to comb out his hair so that it parted in the middle and fell down the side of his head and to the back of his head as well. He added blue sparkles to his skin to make his skin shine. He went to the bridge of his ship and piloted the massive ship to hover over the dance rooms in OASIS. He took a drop pod down to the dance hall that Amira/ Princess May specified. He landed outside and looked for Princess May. He looked around and saw that many couples were entering the dance hall. People from all over the OASIS were entering, wearing different but cool looking clothing of different designs. They were all happy together, with nothing held back. Jack on the other hand was sweating and he could feel his heart hammer in his chest. He wanted to make a good impression on Princess May. He did not want to appear to be shallow or vile, but wanted to make sure he showed her the best side of himself. He could feel sweat bead all around his headset. He took time to grab a tissue and dab around his forehead, careful not to accidentally log off. And then, there she was. Her black hair was done up in curls. Her skin was white as ivory. Her eyes first appeared black and dark, and then changed to glistening jade colour. Her dress was her favorite colour. Jack breathed in and held his breath as he saw her. She smiled as she came closer to him. They were the same height although Princess May was wearing high heels. This would turn to be an amazing night.

 **GoldDragonZ** : Hey guys, I just wanted to take the time to say thank you for reading my story. I am enjoying it very much.


	7. Chapter 7

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

Chapter Seven

 **GoldDragonZ:** I hope people are enjoying this story. I know I am enjoying writing it. It is all coming from my head. Some things I wish happened, some things did happen, some things will never happen, but that's life.

Jack smiled. Princess May smiled back as he took her by the hand. They knew who each other were because their names showed above their avatars briefly. They entered the dance hall where they heard the music pulsing through the walls. Princess May was wearing a very elaborate dress with different designs woven into the digital fabric. The dress was tight against her abdomen and up until under her breasts. Her dress beneath her abdomen flowed out around her. Jack was taken away by the beauty of the Avatar that Princess May, rather Amira had created. Every single detail was taken into stride as Princess May wanted it to stand out from other people. She could tell that the way Jack was facing her that he was trying very hard not to be a pervert. He wanted to honour her, but she wanted him to look at her. She reached up and brushed his cheek. She made him look in her eyes.

"You're trying to fight it, aren't you?" She asked.

"Fight what?" Jack said.

"You want to look at me, but you don't know how." She said. "You don't have much experience talking to women. I think you and I are alike. I only know my friends' boyfriends. Other than that, I don't know anyone else."

"I've seen you talking to other men before." Jack said. "You've spoken to one of our classmates Alan when we're on spare together."

"Yeah," Princess May said, "I admit, I'm one of his friends, but I don't like him like how I feel about you. You're something else. I really like you. Let's talk later. Now, we dance."

She lead him into the main chamber were players of the OASIS were all dancing together. There were men dancing with women, men dancing with men, women dancing with women, and even cartoon characters dancing with other cartoon characters. And then a slow song started playing. Jack took Princess May by the hand and started dancing slowly with her in his arms. She smiled at him, looking into his gold eyes as he looked into her emerald eyes.

"Beautiful." Jack said underneath his breath, and she heard it.

Happily, she began resting her head on his chest. Jack held onto her closely relishing the fact that he was dancing with a girl, even though it wasn't real.

"Hey Amira," Jack said, pulling away from her. "Did you want to dance in real life?"

"I would love it." She said. "Are you asking me to prom?"

"Yeah, I guess I am." Jack smiled. "I want to feel you in my arms for real. I want you to feel the same way about me that I feel about you right now."

"I think I've had those feelings for some time now." She said back. "I wouldn't mind if we did something else in the real world as well."

"Besides going for coffee, or hot chocolate?" Jack joked.

"Mark, thank you for this." Amira/Princess May said. "Let's continue dancing."

And then the song changed and they started dancing to a quicker beat. And then. They noticed that some time had gone by. It was almost 12:00 AM, and they had mass and prayer the following morning (It was Saturday and Mark Patel/Jack_100292402 and Amira Qad/ Princess May were good children). They decided to call it a night and turn off their OASIS consoles.

* * *

The next day, Mark had finished all his homework for the weekend and had gone to 9:00 AM Mass at his community church, Saint Mary's. He studied the Piano history with his brother and played the piano for one hour. He then went onto the OASIS where he decided to talk with some of his friends. He spawned on the bridge of the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and looked for his friends. Tom was already online, playing a free for all yet again, only this time with tanks. Jack 100292402/Mark did not want to join in at that moment as he just wanted to see how his friend would do by himself. Jack opened his Heads Up Display to see if John Matthews/Gadanza or Justin Rihaz/ Arathorn, Son of Anamon were online. Justin/ Arathorn, Son of Anamon was not online, and neither was John/Gadanza. Maybe they were doing something else in the real world, like homework or something. In Justin's case, it was more than likely as he strove for excellence and did not want to let his parents down, although they did not care very much that he had gotten an OASIS console from his friends. John might be out with his family as they had to spend time with their father. Their mother and father had split after a few years, so now John had to take over as head of the household, but they still needed some sort of relationship with their father or something like that.

Jack looked at his roster for games that people were playing. He needed to let off some more steam and could no longer wait for his friend to finish. He found a free for all again being played on the icy fields of Pluto. The theme was space/sci fi battles so you needed to wear armor or something like armor to participate. You also needed special weapons. John went down into his armory and geared up. He put on his normal red and black samurai/ Mjolnir armor and this time had his hair down so that he could but on a helmet for styles. He took out his Grenade launcher/assault rifle/shotgun combination and went down into the pod bay area where he climbed into a Drop Pod and flew from the ship down to the battle ground. Several people were already playing, killing each other. Jack was well prepared and used a flare to light up the area as Pluto was dark. He ran from the pod, firing as he went. He threw a fragment grenade into the air and it landed several meters away from his enemies. Jack fired a shotgun shell and made the grenade explode, lighting up the area as well. He started firing his assault rifle at the enemies that he had seen, and hoped that he hit them. One person was turned into coins, and the player that was closest to the destroyed Avatar scooped up the coins for himself. He then took aim at Jack and started firing a shotgun at him. Jack ducked and rolled. He brought up his weapon and unloaded one clip worth of ammunition into the enemy. The enemy turned into coins and Jack picked them all up. He then saw an explosion happen over a hill. He ran forward and looked for any trace of players doing battle against each other. He saw someone with an avatar of a Marine from _Starcraft_ firing a massive machine gun at a Black Ops opponent who was using a plasma shield to block the bullets from the enemy. Jack fired a grenade at the marine, surprising him. The marine stepped back, but he was wearing advanced armor, and the grenade seemed to just bounce off him. Jack fired three grenades in succession. The other Black Ops player took the time to shoot at the Marine as well with an M4 Carbine Rifle. The Marine took all the damage, but the grenades just seemed to have no effect. The bullets just bounced off him as well.

Jack put away his weapon and took out his sword from _Avatar the Last Airbender_. He ran up to the Marine and stabbed him in the left elbow, where the joint was. He tried twisting the blade to break open the arm, but the sword broke in two. Jack pulled away and summoned his Hulk-buster armor. He put it on and aimed his right arm with his palm open. He aimed his repulsor beam, at the Black Ops player and fired at his head. The player was destroyed instantly. Now it was the Marine against Jack. Jack fired several small missiles at the Marine. The Marine dropped to the floor, and the missiles flew above him, exploding several meters away. Jack turned on a plasma shield as he perceived that the Marine was about to attack him. The Marine brought up his machine gun and aimed from the floor where he was. He opened fire, but the bullets could not get through the shield that Jack had pulled up. Jack knew it was for nothing because he was immortal, but he did not want other people to know about it. He activated his flight mode and flew up over the shield. He fell onto the Marine. He placed his hands on either side of the Marine's head. He activated the repulsor beams and melted the helmet off the player.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The player asked, his skin bubbling with heat.

"Winning." Jack said as he pulled away his right arm, and prepared to hammer his fist down onto the enemy's head.

Jack's fist slammed into the ground as the enemy closed his OASIS console, preventing him from losing any coins as he did not die. Jack stood up and looked around for other enemies to face. There were three enemies to the North East of his position. He took to the air to fly to get to the battle that was going on. One enemy was a sort of war machine from an anime. It was a humanoid form, two stories high. It was significantly taller than Jack in his Hulk Buster armor. It had wings so it too could fly. It was a white machine with two green eyes. It had a pink light saber and a grey cannon on its left arm. Another enemy was a white gorilla wielding two _Morning Star_ maces. It also had a _Predator_ shoulder cannon and a device over its left eye like a scouter from _DragonBall Z_. Jack assumed that the scouter and the shoulder cannon were somehow linked so that the gorilla could control it. The last enemy was the _Red Striker Beetleborg_ from the television series _Big Bad Beetleborgs,_ wielding the character's Striker weapon _._ Jack landed a few meters away from where the battle was taking place.

He chose to go after the smallest enemy, which was the Beetleborg. He took out his tank missile, and fired it at the player. The player cried out in surprise. She turned around to look at Jack, and began firing her weapon at him. He leap into the air, and hovered there. Suddenly, a shot from a firearm took him by surprise from behind him. He whipped around and saw Lynx standing there close to Jack's position.

"What are you doing here?" Jack seethed.

"I'm here to win." Lynx said, with a smoking revolver in his hand, "The bullet I just shot you with has taken away the affects that the Easter eggs had on you."

"I won those eggs." Jack said. "Why would you take them away from me?"

"The way I see it," Lynx said. "The Easter eggs were only supposed to go to one person. The High Five were never supposed to have the full control of the OASIS. There can only be one."

"There is nothing at all that I can do now, is there?" Jack asked. "I can fire all of my ammunition at you, it won't have any effect."

"No, it won't" Lynx laughed. "Now leave before I destroy you and take away your precious coins."

Jack threw a yellow magic orb at Lynx, which wrapped around his body. He also threw down a Flash-bang to blind his enemy. Jack flew to his Drop Pod, put away his Hulk Buster armor and climbed into the pod. He activated it and flew back to the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He needed to tell Art3mis before it was too late. He opened a communication link. Suddenly, alarms started going off. A _Star Destroyer_ from _Star Wars_ came out from behind the world that housed the Pluto arena. It started firing its laser cannons at _The Tensa Zangetsu_.

"Power on the shields." Jack ordered his robot crew. "Power up the Mac Cannons. Launch all _Interceptors._ "

Interceptors were small, robot controlled ships that targeted anything else that Jack deemed to be a threat. He programmed his ships to fire on the _Star Destroyer_ and anything that came out of that ship. They zoomed past the bridge of the _Tensa Zangetsu_ as _the Star Destroyer_ started firing _._

"Mac Cannons are 35% charged." The computer informed Jack.

"Fire all missiles." Jack ordered, and the missile housing units all opened.

The missiles zoomed faster than his Interceptors. Jack turned on his communication link one more time, but got static. Lynx was behind this, and he wanted to stop Jack from telling the High Five about what he was up to. Jack turned and ran from the bridge. He went into his vault and went to his Easter Eggs. He stopped short and found that all three eggs were still there. However, they were housed in green cubes.

"Ship, scan the hull for any tracking devices." Jack ordered his computer. "He must have been watching somehow. But when did he have time to place a tracker on the hull of my ship? How did he even find it?"

Jack had no idea what the answers would be. Suddenly, red alarm lights started going off. Jack turned around and ran from his vault. He stopped short. Lynx was standing there. His computer had not known that he was boarding the ship until it was too late.

"You know, I like what you have on this ship." Lynx said. "It will be a great bonus to what I have."

"You could probably copy everything I have, with your programming skills." Jack said. "Why steal it?"

"Why?" Lynx mused. "Because I can, and you can't do anything about it. Any last words before I kill you and steal your ship?"

" _Amorath, Forgoran, Zinthiodus!"_ Jack screamed, activating a black hole spell right behind Lynx.

The atmosphere started being pulled from the ship into the black hole. Jack activated his magnetic boots, which made him stick to the ground. Lynx was pulled, but at the last moment before he was sucked into the black hole, he activated his jets in his legs and started flying.

"I'll kill you!" Lynx screamed.

"Sentinel, come online." Jack told his emergency system in his ship. "Intruder calling."

Suddenly, a red beam swept through the entire ship, and found Lynx. It targeted him, and began wrapping him in yellow energy. It pulled him into the black hole, and then sent him through it. Jack took out a missile launcher and fired at Lynx, who had no time to dodge or anything. He was swept into the void of the black hole. Jack said the spell again, and deactivated the black hole.

"You come to my ship?" Jack seethed, going back to the bridge. "You think I'm just going to lay down and just give up what I earned? I don't think so. This means war!"

Jack looked out and saw that his interceptors were losing. They could not fight against something immortal. Jack had to decide; cut and run without his trusted robots, or see if he could pull off something.

"I'm going to have to buy new robots." Jack seethed. "You all served me valiantly. All robots, use your fire to get the ship's attention and fire on the bridge."

The robots obeyed as only robots with no minds of their own could obey. Several were destroyed before they could reach the bridge. Others fired torpedoes at the bridge. Jack piloted his ship, The _Tensa Zangetsu_ to another point and prepared to jump to hyperspace.

"God's speed." He said to his faithful robots and then the ship zipped away from Pluto.

* * *

Vladislav Volkovskis threw his Headset down. He had failed to steal from Jack_100292402. It was upsetting because he thought he was a good player, plus he cheated, and he had also caught Jack by surprise. And yet he was beaten. It was not right. He did not want anyone else to be able to get the Easter eggs. He wanted to be the only one with the powers that they granted. Then, if he couldn't do things that way, he needed to program something else into the OASIS that would grant him a better advantage against all the players, including Jack and Art3mis. He wanted to be the very best. He wanted to be king of all the OASIS. He needed items that would grant him an advantage against these top tier players. That meant that he needed to find out the spells that would grant him the advantage and he needed to find them quickly.

He opened his cell phone and called Lewis Roger, also known as Tridosk on the OASIS.

"Hello?" Lewis said.

"Sup Noob." Vladislav greeted his friend. "I need you to do something for me. Find out where the High Five spend their time and give me the information. I need to ask them something."

"How can I find that out?" Lewis asked.

"You'll find a way," Vladislav said. "I know you can."

"Okay, I'll ask around." Lewis said. "What were you doing?"

"Just owning noobs, doing the same old thing." Vladislav lied. "Just find that out for me, and I'll make it worth your while."

"Okay Vlad." Lewis said. "I'll do it."

And with that they hung up. The next target was Art3mis.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Parzival asked Jack, who was in Aech's chat room _The Basement/ Garage_.

"Well think about it." Jack said. "He did shield one world from us getting to the egg. He also fought us the moment we all met."

"And you said that magic worked against him?" Art3mis asked. "That means he is probably aware of the same weaknesses that are out there for us."

"We need to find out what Halliday wanted us to use the unlimited ammo, boost in speed, and the immortality for." Parzival said

"Was it really him that left us these eggs this time, or was it someone else who had access to the OASIS before?" Aech said. "It could be a mod that someone else made to make the game more goal oriented."

"If that was the case then why was there no advertisement about these eggs being placed out in the OASIS?" Jack asked. "Maybe there's a fourth egg that we need to find that has something that can explain it to us?"

"Where would we find the egg?" Parzival queried. "And it looks like only the three of you can get it anyways."

"Ok, so the best way to find something is to go through all the information we have." Jack said. "Maybe we need to go back over all areas where we found the eggs?"

"That might take some doing." Parzival said. "It appears that the worlds where the eggs were vanished the moment the eggs were won. We can't go back."

"I'll see if I can find anything out using my computer software on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_." Jack said. "I suggest we take some time away from the OASIS as well, because we don't want to start something before we have all the facts."

"You want us to what?" Aech laughed. "We're not part of this."

"This Lynx person may want to use one of our friends to get to us." Jack said. "He might hold your Avatars hostage. Do you really want to lose everything you worked so hard for? I know my friends would not want to be held hostage because the gear that they have earned is hard to find."

"Okay, so I'll lock up the Garage and stay off the OASIS while you guys do your thing." Aech said. "Do you need my cell number or something if you need help?"

"Yeah that would be helpful." Jack said. "I also have friends; did you guys want their numbers as well?"

"It would be best if we shared all the numbers that we can so that we can prepare those who were closest to us."

"That call is going to go well." Art3mis mused.

"I know." Jack said. "Everyone for almost a decade has been living digitally, not leaving the OASIS until you guys came and closed it down every Tuesday and Thursday. I don't know how my friends will feel."

"Its for their own benefit." Art3mis said. "You and I have to work together to fight against Lynx."

"Hey, don't count us out yet." Parzival said. "I'll go down tomorrow to OASIS headquarters and talk to the programmers to see if they know what can be done against Lynx."

"I'll come with you." Aech said.

"We need to let Daito and Shoto know as well." Art3mis said. "They might know someone. At the very least they will be here in case we need them for something."

"Okay, let's roll out." Jack said.

* * *

"What the hell man?" Tom said as Mark told his friends at school that they needed to stay off the OASIS. "I thought you were unkillable? How could he just depower your Easter eggs? Wouldn't he need to be in the same room as them?"

"You would like to think that, but the eggs are attached to us." Mark explained. "The code he used made is so that I am killable now."

"How can you be sure if he didn't kill you?" John said. "You still have everything."

"Something changed with my Easter eggs." Mark explained. "There are now some barriers surrounding them. They may not work anymore, and I don't want to test it out just in case it is true. The only egg I can test safely is the one that gives you the boost in speed. But the High Five and I have decided that we all need to stay off the OASIS to give time for Wade to find out what he can from the higher ups in the OASIS coding department. And I need time to talk to Amira."

"What do you need to talk to her about?" John asked.

"He wants to put his 'wocket in her pocket'." Tom joked.

"I don't want to hurt her." Mark said. "She needs to know what's going on. Where on campus does she and her friends hang out before class?"

"I think I see her around my locker at the front of the cafeteria." Justin chimed in for the first time. "Are you brave enough to face her like this."

"Fuck no." Mark said. "I'm probably going to stumble over my words, but this is important. Can one of you come with me?"

"Yeah, I'm good friends with a few of her friends, like Jessica." Justin said. "We've worked together in class. I can be your wingman."

"Alright thanks," Mark said.

"Anytime." Justin said.

"We're coming too." John said. "We're all your friends."

The four friends walked quietly, all four of them carrying the books they would need for their first class. And then there she was; Amira was speaking to one of her best friends, Alan. Alan was five feet, four inches tall. He was not the tallest, but he was the bravest as he could talk to anyone with no problem. He liked to play basketball, and was good at it. The girls all thought he was cute. Amira liked him and that was good enough for Mark. The four friends walked close to her, and she caught Mark's eye and smiled.

"I didn't know if we would talk in real life right away." Amira said, smiling. "I'm glad you came."

"Hey Amira." Mark said. "There is something I have to say but I don't know how to say it."

Amira reached out and took Mark's hand.

"Whatever it is, I can handle it." She said. "You can trust me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Its about the OASIS." Mark said.

"What do you mean?" Amira asked, not understanding what Mark was trying to say.

He was sweating buckets. His knuckles were white as he was squeezing his books. And then he felt a reaffirming hand on his shoulder.

"Remember Mark," Justin said. "We're here for you. Like Amira said, you don't have anything to worry about. From what the others have told me, you have faced demons more frightening than Amira. She wants to talk to you. Just breathe. You can do it."

"You can do it, put your back into it." Tom said.

"Amira, online." Mark started. "There's a guy who is out to get me. I won three Easter eggs, and there maybe more. He wants them all to himself so he's coming after the other winner as well. There was just us three; it has nothing to do with the big Easter Egg that came out after Halliday's death. It seems that someone else wants people to compete for other things to win. Right now, I have three Easter eggs. One grants Immortality in the OASIS. One grants a boost in speed. One grants unlimited ammunition. He's coming after me because he wants to be the only one to have the eggs."

"Maybe you should just give him the eggs." Amira said. "I don't like you because of your coins and stuff you have online. I like you for you on the outside. Remember, the OASIS is just a game. You need to figure something out about who you want to be when you outgrow the OASIS."

"Outgrow the OASIS?" Tom asked, a little irritated.

"Don't say anything." John told his friend.

"I don't want you to get in his way." Mark said. "That's all; I care about what happens to you."

She smiled a beautiful smile.

"I have a friend that might be interested in talking to you, Mark." She said. "I've noticed that you are always so serious. He might be able to loosen you up. Here is his phone number. Do you have a cell phone?"

"Yeah." Mark said, pulling out his I-Phone that he only used for emergencies. "What's your number, by the way?"

"Oh yeah, I should probably give you that as well." She said.

She gave him her cellphone number and the number for the person that could help him.

"Thanks." Mark said.

"No, thank you, Mark." She said. "I think we will start having a good relationship."

"I hope so too." Mark replied.

"Guys, its going to be class soon." Alan said. "I hope you guys know what you're doing."

"Thanks, Alan." Mark said.

"No problem." He said.

* * *

Mark did not go home early that day. He wanted to know more about the person that Amira had suggested he talk with. He spent some time in the school library, looking up the phone number which was tied to a social media account. He found out that the person's name was Nick Harvey. Mark's eyes widened. This guy looked like he could be a bouncer for a club. He had several pictures with other people and nine times out of ten he was the tallest. His arms were like tree trunks. There were some pictures with Nick having no shirt on. He had several tattoos; one was a cross on his left shoulder. One was a wolf on his right shoulder. He looked like he trained for something. Mark looked up his work detail and was astonished at this man's resume. He was 32 years old and had served several years as a police constable in the Toronto Police Department and was now a Mental Health Practitioner. His wife was a blonde bombshell, and their four-year-old son was quite cute. Nick had brown hair, and in most of his pictures had his hair spiked up. He also had a goatee. He had grey eyes and had many friends online.

Mark looked up where Nick was working. It was completely blank, which Mark found to be odd. Why would Nick say that he was a Mental Health Practitioner but not put where he worked? And then it dawned on him. His teacher had said that with most if not all health care, it was a serious offence to give out patient information, and that also had to do with mental health. Mark decided that he needed to meet this man that Amira suggested him to call. He swiped his phone to make the call and searched the contact list for Nick's number. He found it and made the call. The phone rang twice, and then a man picked up.

"Hello?" Nick said from the other side.

"Hi, this is Mark Patel." Mark introduced himself. "I'm a friend of Amira's."

"Oh, Mark!" Nick said. "Amira has told me about you."

"I don't know what to say." Mark said. "Amira and I have only just started talking to each other. I don't know how she could have known that much about me."

"She's liked you for a long time, Mark." Nick said. "She found out that one of your favorite movies was _The Mark of Zorro_. She had dressed up as Zorro during Halloween at your school."

"I know." Mark said. "I saw that. I didn't want to assume that she liked me. I thought that it could be a coincidence. Our friends don't hang out with each other. It wasn't until recently that we started talking. She was the one who initiated it by asking one of her friends to talk to one of my friends about me. I'm not really good at talking to people outside the OASIS."

"It's about time that you overcame that," Nick said. "I will text you an address. Meet me there and I will help you get better, Mark. I want to help you."

"But you don't even know me." Mark said. "What could I have done to make you interested in helping me?"

"I always want to help people." Nick said. "That is my purpose. God has given me a gift, and I never want to forget it. Never give up, Mark. Sometimes, the night is darkest just before the dawn. The dawn is coming, and you will become something more than what you are right now. Let me help you. You don't owe me anything. You don't have to pay me. I am here for you and Amira. That and plus, I am Amira's God brother as well. I'm doing this as a favour to her."

"Okay I will meet you there." Mark said.

"Looking forward to meeting you Mark." Nick said.

"You too."

* * *

They were no where to be found. Lynx was livid. Jack_100292402 had defeated him without killing him. He had thrown him into a black hole, which transported him right across the OASIS to another world altogether. His ship was without its commander, and was being attacked. Luckily his Easter egg and hacking skills made all his items, tools, and vehicles to be impervious to damage. His laser turrets would make short work of the interceptor robots that the _Tensa Zangetsu_ had left in its wake. Lynx swore that he would find a way to track Jack down, but he did not have a clue what could be done. It appeared that the High Five were told about what happened, as there was no activity from any of them. Lynx had created a code that could pinpoint wherever a few players would emerge. That was how he found Jack, but he did not have time to track down the rest of his enemies. Lynx decided that he would play a game to get off some aggression. He started playing a free for all, much like how Jack was playing when Lynx ambushed him. Lynx loaded a file on the world of Endor where players would go through a forest with massive trees and kill each other for sport. It was good for snipers as they could use the different tree branches, and platforms to take out other players. The best snipers played on maps like these.

However, Lynx was not much of a sniper. He preferred playing as a _Predator_. He chose to use a code to make him invisible to other players. He watched as other players were killing each other for a time. People from different countries were already playing against each other. There was no time limit, and anyone could join at any time. There was also no kill limit, so the game could go on for hours until you needed a break from the game at any point. However, Lynx had strategically decided to play the game right then and there because he was waiting for a clan to show up. Lynx flew and went to strategic spots where snipers would sit and wait to take out other players who were moving around the map. Lynx placed fragmentation mines at these points. He had used a code that also made his items invisible as well. He looked for any openings in the trees and found a place where he could place a trap. People were playing oblivious to what was being done around them. Logs suddenly disappeared from the map. Sticks were sharpened, and vines suddenly began moving by themselves. Lynx was placing traps for all his enemies, and it felt so right. He was a professional killer, and this was how he showed it. And so, he waited. Three players made their way to strategic spots where Lynx had left the mines. They exploded, leaving behind nothing but coins. Lynx swooped down and took it all for himself. He then went and hid again, waiting for more people to join. He had also taken the time to create elaborate traps for the other players to encounter. It took him about half an hour to come up with everything that he was going to use against them.

Finally, two clans joined. On the OASIS, you could advertise when and where you wanted a match, and you could coordinate when you can play against each other. That was how Lynx knew these clans were going to come together to do battle against each other.

Suddenly, the Wolf pack, a team of 20 players who wore grey and black fur/armour with wolf head shaped helmets appeared. There were three players who had yellow patches on their shoulders, two players with red patches on their shoulders, and one with a shimmering white patch on his skull. Next, 20 Starship troopers appeared as well on the field. There was only one with a Captain's badge. Both clans had warriors with varying pieces of weaponry. They did not stick to the weapons associated with their characters, but also had weapons from different media as well. All other players were welcome to continue playing, but they would come in between the two clans. The whole arena became alive with movement as players spawned at different places. Teams did not spawn on either side, it happened this way for the players to meet each other right away instead of waiting to be found.

Lynx saw four players congregate in one area where his traps was. He activated it, and two huge logs flung from the trees. Vines kept the logs from hitting the ground, but instead they crashed into the four players, killing them. They respawned of course, but lost some coins that Lynx picked up. He needed to make as much money as he could to buy enough spells to combat Jack_100292402 and Art3mis. Next, six players were fighting each other at a different place. While they were doing that, three snipers tried to take positions at the very same place that Lynx had placed his mines. All three of them died and Lynx picked up their coins as well. No one knew if the other team had done this on purpose. The Wolf pack thought that the Starship Troopers had come before the match to make these traps, but they could not explain why they would take out their own soldiers as well. The Starship Troopers thought the same thing about the Wolf Pack. They never even considered Lynx was there as he was invisible. Wooden spikes flew from slings that Lynx had created. They sliced through the air and cut deep into the enemies that were close by. Several missed their mark, but that was okay. Three Wolf Pack soldiers were running after one Starship Trooper when they fell into a pit with wooden spikes at the bottom. All of them were killed. The amount of coins that Lynx was racking up was staggering. Several players tried returning to where they died, but they never retrieved any of their weapons, coins, or spells that Lynx had taken for himself.

He used his massive proton cannon to cut down a tree. It toppled over six players, and they all were destroyed. Lynx picked up their coins, spells, and weapons that he did not already have. He wanted to have a place where he called his home in the OASIS. It was true that he had the Star Destroyer, but it seemed like he would be copying Jack_1002492402 who had a ship already. He needed a hangout where he could show the world all that he owned thanks to his own work in the OASIS. He looked for other enemies nearby and used a radar device to find them. They came up as red dots on a round map just like in _Halo: Combat Evolved_. He flew using the repulsor jets on his boots and hands. He aimed his missile launcher and fired at four enemies. They all perished and he picked up their gear and coins. Soon, the players were feeling overwhelmed. They decided to come together, with their backs against each other. It was Wolf Pack and Starship Troopers against an unknown threat. They found an area where they could all come together. It was to their undoing as they made themselves one target instead of many. Lynx flew above them and searched through his inventory until he found a weapon from the _Fallout_ series; a _Fatman_ that shot out miniature Nuclear bombs. He powered it up and placed a special code to the nuke. He shot out the nuke and flew above the trees as the explosion rocked the whole arena. It destroyed mostly everything. Trees snapped in two like twigs. The atmosphere turned green and there was lightening. Lynx had changed things in the OASIS, forever. This would mean that the creators, or those in charge of things would need to investigate. With any hope, that would make the High Five take him more seriously as a threat who was not afraid of destroying everything to get what he wanted in the virtual world. He picked up all the coins, weapons, and spells and left he arena. However, no one would know it was him because he had not shown himself, but thankfully he did save the game play.

 **GoldDragonZ** : Thanks for reading. I enjoyed writing this story very much. It goes on though.


	8. Chapter 8

Ready Player One: The adventures of Jack

Chapter Eight

 **GoldDragonZ** : I hope people are enjoying this story. I know I am enjoying writing it. It is all coming from my head and heart as I look back on my life. Please enjoy and tell me what you think.

Wade Watts and Helen Harris waited in the boardroom at the OASIS headquarters in the United States at an undisclosed location. As a matter of fact, they lived there now, and were waiting to talk to the head programmers that oversaw what was happening within the OASIS and stop illegal activity from happening. A Japanese woman came into the room.

"Good morning to you both." She said in perfect English. "My name is Akira Tomoyo. I am aware that there might be some questions that you have about events that have transpired."

"No doubt." Helen said. "We were able to find out that someone was able to get their hands on the location of three Easter Eggs. Artemis, otherwise known as Samantha Cook and another person with the name of Jack underscore 100292402 also known as Mark Patel, won all three. It gave them immortality, unlimited ammo, and a boost in speed for their vehicles. Who could have done this?"

"We all did." She said. "We wanted to honor you five as well as other players who could win and be heroes in their own right. I never knew that someone would find out about the eggs and decide to hoard them for himself. It seems that the person who found out about the eggs in the first place wanted the original egg you won for himself. He does not like to share, and so was never accepted into any league or clan. He wanted to rule over everything. His real name is Vladislav Volkovskis. He was born and raised in the old Estonia just outside of modern day Russia. His father was a business man, and his mother died when he was nine years old. He has an older sister who is studying to become a doctor. He is a programmer for a firm that creates programs for little children to learn. He could use his coding to hack into the OASIS and this made it possible for him to find out about the egg before we could organize an advertisement for it. We first came to Samantha with the information about the first egg so that there could be some competition. We never thought that he would become so moved that he would strike out against other players for wanting to compete for the eggs."

"We need to stop him." Wade said. "Halliday had wanted everyone in the OASIS to have fun and equal rights when it came to competing against each other. I don't think he would want to have only one person rule the whole network. Is there a way to stop him?"

"We need to mobilize a task force to strip him of his console." Helen said.

"That might be something to think about," Akira said. "But there is the point that he won everything fair and square."

"He is actively hacking into the OASIS." Wade said. "He's doing things that he is not supposed to."

"One of the people who won the eggs was attacked yesterday." Wade explained. "He was playing normally when Lynx attacked him with a special bullet that took away the abilities that the Easter eggs gave him. Is there a way to undo the breach?"

"He would need to come here with his console for us to look at his profile." Akira told them. "Where does he live?"

"I'm not sure, but per his phone number, it would be somewhere like Toronto Canada." Helen said. "He also has a few friends that he is afraid for. He doesn't want Lynx to come after anyone. His name is Mark Patel."

"If Mark's abilities were taken away, then there is a good chance that Mister Volkovskis will not come after him anymore," Akira said.

"So, Samantha and the rest of the High Five are in danger?" Wade surmised. "We need something from the Research and Development Wing."

"What do you need?" Akira asked.

"Something that can bypass the immortality that one of the Easter eggs gave to Lynx." Wade said. "It has to be magically based. We need to lock down his Avatar and trap him forever."

"With his hacking skills," Akira said. "He might be able to bypass the effects that something with that level of coding could produce. Also, its illegal for us to steal anything really. The amount of money he must have spent in equipment alone could be staggering. His net worth right now is $5 billion in coins alone on the OASIS. The public will not like it if you go against someone who is a top tier player. It could show that you do not want people to compete with you to get the gifts that were left behind for everyone and anyone to collect."

"So, we just let him strip Artemis of her eggs that she won fair and square without hacking?" Helen said.

"Why don't you guys just message him?" Akira asked. "Surely he can be reasoned with before you can come up with something to destroy what he built. I'm sure you both would not like to lose everything you worked for in the OASIS, including Halliday's Easter egg."

"No, we wouldn't." Wade said. "How about this? Bring back the Easter Eggs except for Immortality. Let them be able to turn it on and off as well. That way, the more people win, the more that are against Lynx. He wouldn't know what to do. And put out Skulls that people can collect so that it would make gameplay more challenging. Like, have a skull that hides your targeting symbol. Or one that makes it harder for one player, but normal or easy for other players. Skulls could be something you can use to challenge yourself. And then we will see who the most gifted players would be."

"That's smart." Helen said. "But what if he hacks the system and negates what we put into motion?"

"Then we keep doing it until he gives up." Wade said. "Put out as many different Skulls and Easter Eggs as possible. What do you think, Miss Tomoyo?"

"It's workable." Akira nodded. "And this time we will make sure that advertisements go out _before_ we place the eggs on the map so that Mister Volkovskis would not be alone in the race to claim them."

"I'm a good programmer as well." Helen said. "Tell me if you guys need my help."

"As owners of the company, I think it would do really nicely if the High Five spent a little bit of time working on the network with us." Akira said. "You would be overseeing everything that is going on within the company and what we are doing. For too long, we did not include you five in what we're doing, and I would like to apologize for that."

"It's not your fault." Wade said. "We just assumed Morrow would handle things for a while, but you are right, we need to start considering everything that is going on and see to it that no one can harm other players. Whoever can afford a console should be able to play on the OASIS without any trouble. From now on, all the Easter eggs and Skulls will be advertised. They should not be too hard to find, however we need to make it challenging as well."

"How about we use different speeches that Halliday and Morrow used?" Akira asked. "Players get to win one million coins for finding and putting the speeches together in the right order."

"Do we get to participate?" Helen asked.

"Unfortunately, this is good for people who cannot afford to buy things in real life." Akira said reluctantly. "It would not be fair for the owners of the OASIS to win more. That might be why mister Volkovskis is angry that Samantha won the egg. I believe that he was watching Mark for a while and found out that Mark is not part of a clan, if I am guessing right. He thought Mark would be easy to defeat instead of going after the High Five. Obviously, he failed."

Just then an associate came in to the room.

"Hello, how are you doing?" He asked, but his face was grim. "Something terrible has happened to one of our most played maps."

"What was it?" Akira asked.

"Someone was cloaked and used elaborate traps to kill players." The associate began. "He made two clans and a few other players lose coins and weaponry. He used a Nuclear Bomb and destroyed most of the map. It was Endor, from _Star Wars._ "

"How did he steal gear?" Helen asked. "I thought we could only take coins?"

"This person was able to hack into players that were killed and take what they had most recently used." The associate said. "Mind you he could not steal everything, but he stole what they were using at the time. Everything that you own is on your console, and only the items you decide to play with would come into action. That was what he stole."

"It was him," Wade said with a somber expression. "He wants to gather as much magic and weapons that he can get so that he can kill us to get to Samantha. He wants her eggs most of all. Mark can't use his right now unless we can find a way to undo the spells or coding that Vladislav used."

"Mark's parents must be willing to come with him or sign a form saying that he can travel by himself," Akira said. "Just like how you five were able to do."

"I'll talk to him." Helen said. "and maybe in the meantime, you can start finding out what you can about the three eggs that Samantha has."

With that, Helen left Wade to speak to Akira alone.

* * *

"Hey Mark?" Helen asked into her cell phone.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Mark said from the other side of the connection. "What happened? My brother said that there's been a bombing on one of the maps that kids play on? So many players were destroyed. They lost their coins and weapons. What's happening?"

"We were just informed about what happened," Helen explained. "It happened and we did not know what to do about it. We are still coming up with a plan to deal with Lynx."

"Are you sure it was him?" Mark asked, concerned. "He's insane. I heard people lost their weapons as well as any special items that they had not used yet. Is that true?"

"I can't believe how fast news flies." Helen sighed. "Everything is as you heard. I'm surprised you know so much, are you sure you were not on the OASIS?"

"I have a whole shipload of stuff that I don't want stolen." Mark said. "I would rather wait a few days than let go of all the items I hoarded over the years playing on the OASIS. Why don't we play a different kind of game with this Lynx person?"

"What do you suggest?" Helen asked.

"I know that this is not going to sound good." Mark began as he tried to think of the best way to say what he had been thinking of. "We should put a bounty on his head. Whoever can kill Lynx, the player wearing _War Machine_ armor can win 155 million coins and three special items that no one else has. One of his vehicles is an _Imperial Star Destroyer_ from _Star Wars_. One was an alien ship from _Independence Day_ and he has a vast arsenal of heavy weapons that he can use. The High Five can have their programmers go into Lynx's profile and look at what he has, and copy and paste and give the player who kills him everything that he has."

"That sounds like a great idea." Helen said. "And in that way, he becomes everyone else's problem as well. I'll tell Wade about it. We also need to you and your family to fly down to our base of operations so that we can look at your console for the OASIS and see what can be done to reverse what Lynx did to your Easter eggs."

"I can't right now." Mark said. "I have school exams, prom, piano lessons and music exams coming up. Maybe I will come by in the summer after everything is finished."

"That's fine, you're living life," Helen said. "We wouldn't want it any other way."

So, they spoke a little about coding and fixing things online. They really needed to get started on how to defeat Lynx but they wanted to take the time to talk amongst themselves. And then, they decided to end the call. Mark thought to himself that he and Helen had much in common, and should become good friends going forward.

* * *

"Dudes." Tom greeted two of his friends who were sitting down together for lunch on a fine Tuesday afternoon. "I just got off the internet in the library. There's something big happening tomorrow. We all need to log into the OASIS."

"What's happening?" Mark asked.

"The High Five are planning to tell us all something." Tom said, excitedly. "We haven't heard from them in years, and suddenly they're back."

"But we met them." John said.

"I introduced you to them." Mark said.

"I know, but this is important because it affects everyone in the world who have an OASIS console." Tom said. "They have something to say to everyone. We need to be there in the front row."

Mark's eyes widened. This said the word 'trap' written all over it.

"Wait guys." Mark said, getting up from the table. "I'm going to sort this out and see what they have planned. This does not seem like a strategically smart plan. Lynx might show up and destroy us all."

"Maybe they're going to make him an honorable member of their group?" Tom said. "You don't know what they have planned."

"I know where I'm going to be." Mark said. "But I have to make sure."

Mark turned his back and walked as quick as he could to the exit with his cell phone. He searched through his contact list and found Helen's number. He pressed call and waited for Helen to pick up.

"Hello?" Helen said.

"Helen, its Mark." He said.

"Hey Mark, how are things?" She said.

"Could be better." Mark felt someone looking at him, and turned around.

Amira was there looking at him.

"Sorry Helen, I'll call you later." He said, and hung up before Helen could give a reply.

"Sorry Amira, how are things?" Mark said, his heart pounding against his chest.

"Who's Helen?" She asked.

"Someone from the OASIS." Mark admitted. "She's part of a clan that I'm interested in helping out. I think they have something planned but I think it's a bad idea. I wanted to tell her that it was a bad idea before it's too late."

"Why, what do you think is going to happen?" She asked.

Mark wanted to tell her. He considered it. What would happen if he let her know about his relationship with Helen, with Art3mis and the High Five? He already spent more hours online talking to people who he did not see face to face. Hanging out with two famous women might not go well with other women in real life. However, Mark did not want to lie, not to Amira. He took a deep breath and remembered his breath training for performing the piano in front of other people. He had performed at a concert every year for the last ten years since he was seven years old. He had performed at two talent shows, once when he was thirteen years old and once when he was sixteen years old. His teacher had taught him and his siblings the art of performing, and he needed it now to talk to Amira. He had to remember who he was. He was captain of his own ship. He was a warrior.

"Amira, you are awesome, and I want you to be in my life." He said. "But there are people who I have only just gotten to know over a few weeks and they need my help. They are the High Five from the OASIS."

"So, wait, you're telling me not only were you just speaking with someone from the OASIS," She said excitedly. "You're talking to a girl whose name is Helen who is just so famous and runs the whole thing? What do you do exactly on your own when you're at home?"

"I fix things for other players." Mark said. "That's how people know me. I only bill people for the time it takes. I use parts I find on the floor after battles. I have robots helping me as well. They are wonderful. Enough about that; Artemis and I have won three Easter eggs. One granted immortality. One granted a boost in speed for vehicles. And one granted unlimited ammo. There is a person with the name Lynx who wants to be the only one. I was playing a game and he attacked me with a special coded bullet that removed the gifts that the Easter eggs gave me. I left him, but he followed and hacked into my ship, which is my base of operations and tried to take things from me. I barely escaped because I used a spell to send him across the OASIS to another location. I have told my friends not to go on the OASIS because of him. And now, it seems that the High Five want everyone to meet at a location in the OASIS to tell us all something. I think that Lynx will try something to kill us and steal everything that we worked so hard to get."

"They did announce that they were going to have a meeting with players from the OASIS." Amira said. "I think they know what they are doing. They do own the whole thing, you know. Have faith in them, Mark. I heard that you spoke to Nick. How did it go?"

"He wants to meet me." Mark told her. "He knows a lot about me, but how did you find out all those things about me to tell him?"

"People talk." Amira said. "My friends asked your friends what your favorite movie was. I dressed up as Zorro for Halloween."

"I saw that." Mark said. "I guess you have liked me for some time now. How can I make it up to you?"

"Let's go somewhere." She said. "Let's have dessert for dinner."

"How about tonight?" Mark asked. "There's an Italian restaurant close by."

"You mean Fraticelli's?" Amira said, quite happy at the mention of the restaurant. "My best friend Jessica loves going there!"

"We took my mom there once for Mother's Day one year." Mark said. "Have you been there before?"

"We go once a month!" Amira said.

"I guess you like going there."

"Yeah, it's awesome!"

"How about tonight at five o'clock?"

"Sounds good! I'll meet you there."

Amira reached out and grabbed Mark in a hug that squeezed the air from his lungs. He kissed Amira on her nose by accident. Her eyes widened. She closed her eyes and puckered up. They kissed on the mouth for what seemed to be an eternity. They broke for air.

"That was amazing." Mark said. "I have never kissed anyone like that before."

"Me neither." Amira said, pulling away from Mark, shyly.

A teacher shook her head and smiled as she walked past the two teenagers. She was happy for them. She had seen Mark through the four years that he had been at the school. He was always grim when he was not with his friends. He seemed to have found something else that made him happy. She had caught him looking at girls, but she never confronted him about it. He seemed to be behaving himself, however.

* * *

"Helen, listen to me." Mark said after lunch. "Don't go through with the announcement. It will not end well. I think Lynx will attack Artemis at the announcement."

"You don't have to worry about us." Helen said. "We will take care of each other and looked out for Lynx."

"I'll be in my ship monitoring the situation." Mark said. "I have infrared scanners and other scanners on the ship. Hopefully I can find him before he attacks you guys. He might go after you and the others who don't have immortality to force Artemis to fight him one on one. He's too powerful."

"We own the OASIS." Helen said. "We have spoken to the programmers. Trust me, we know what we're doing. We would like you and your friends to be there."

"I'll be there." Mark said. "I will not leave you guys alone. I'll talk to my friends and see what they think."

"Yeah, I hope so." Helen said. "Okay, I have to split, but I'll talk to you soon."

"Okay, nice talking to you Aech."

"You too, Jack"

* * *

The time had come. Lynx had been playing it too safe to the chest. Now that he had immortality, unlimited ammunition and a boost in speed, it was time that he made the OASIS his world. He hacked into his console, not ready to go into the OASIS yet, but decided to modify several of his weapons using special codes. He looked at all that he had gathered and chose several items and copied them so that there were many duplicates. Weapons such as grenades and mines were duplicated so that he had a huge stock of them to use. He mirrored missile launchers so that he could use two at the same time, one on one arm. For vehicles, he hacked into the codes for them and made it possible for cars and motorcycles to be able to ride on water. Spaceships or planes could plunge into water and run as if they were in outer space or in the air.

Next, he opened the OASIS, and searched for another world like Endor, where more than one clan was playing on. He found a desert world where players were using vehicles to destroy each other. Some were using tanks. Others were using a mixture of vehicles from different movies. Some were using Scarabs from _Halo 2_. Some were using Goliaths from _StarCraft_. They were all trying to destroy each other. Lynx flew quickly down to the ground and slammed into the ground, bringing up dust into the air, blocking player's view. He took out his massive Proton cannon and fired at the nearest Scarab. The proton beam slammed into the joint of one of the legs of the massive vehicle. It buckled and almost went down, however the other five legs compensated for it. The Scarab turned around and aimed its primary weapon at Lynx, who ran as fast as he could to the Scarab. It fired its weapon at the lone avatar.

"Scrub noobs." Lynx said under his breath as he took out a laser sword that was attached to his right gauntlet.

He sliced through the opposite leg of the first one that he had destroyed. He launched a grapnel hook which lodged onto the top of the vehicle. Lynx pulled himself on top and enemies started advancing on his position from within the vehicle. Some were _Elites_ from the _Halo_ series. Some were _Spartans_ from the same series as well. There were also several other characters not at all associated with _Halo_ at all. There was someone with the _Snake_ skin from _Metal Gear Solid_. Someone was Jax from _Mortal Kombat_. The list went on. Lynx slammed his fist into the face of the nearest player, and fired several missiles from a shoulder-mounted missile launcher at other players that wanted to see what was causing so much commotion. Their shields held, and they surrounded Lynx as he turned one of the enemies around and grabbed him from behind. The player grabbed Lynx's arm. Lynx aimed a machine gun that was mounted on his right arm as he held onto the enemy in his left arm. He fired at the others who were trying to get around him. He laughed as they tried firing back. He used the enemy in his arms as a shield, and they disintegrated into nothing but coins which Lynx picked up. He took out two lasers from his elbows and fired them at the enemies all around. The lasers were so powerful that they blasted away some of the top of the Scarab.

"Time to die." Lynx said in Estonian as he aimed his massive Proton cannon at the heart of the Scarab.

He fired away and the Scarab lifted off from the ground as the blast from the cannon lifted it. Its core became unstable and the whole thing exploded. All the enemies were swept away in the blast, and turned into coins and gear that Lynx scooped up. Lynx took to the air and zipped around the map. He fired a tank missile at one tank. The tank exploded and Lynx scooped up his winnings. These players respawned and had different weapons. Some had the same weapons as before because Lynx was not interested in just taking everything. He was trying to find items that he had yet to acquire. Something like the Scarab would come in handy, so he stole it. He used a sniper rifle and shot someone who was riding a motorcycle. The person crashed and turned into coins. Lynx flew but someone closer to the motorcycle picked up the coins. Lynx became angry so he fired his mini-gun that was mounted on his shoulder at the enemy. The bullets ripped through the enemy. He did not have a chance to retaliate as soon he was nothing but gear and coins that Lynx took. Lynx destroyed the motorcycle completely as he did not want anyone to have anything left unless they fixed what was broken. This would cost them so much that they might stop playing the game for a while so that they could look for a way to make enough coins to fix what was destroyed. And then, five people came together to form the _Mega-Zord_ from _The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers_ Television show. The _Mega-Zord_ was huge and walked slowly towards Lynx. Lynx launched several missiles from his shoulder missile launcher. They bounced harmlessly off the _Mega-Zord's_ hull. He flew backwards as the _Mega-Zord_ walked, and fired his minigun that was on the opposite shoulder. He needed to think of something.

He pulled out his Massive Proton cannon and aimed upwards to where all the players were sitting, in the chest cavity. The beam slammed into the _Mega-Zord_ which stumbled back and as smoke cleared, Lynx saw that what he used had no effect. His anger grew. He pulled out a _Fat-man_ from the _Fallout_ series and took to the air. He flew up and started firing mini-nuke after mini-nuke. The _Mega-Zord_ tried to grab him, but he flew too quickly for the massive behemoth to grab him. He then decided about what he needed to do. He flew past the _Mega-Zord's_ hand and went right up to its face. He pulled out his massive Proton cannon again and fired right directly into its head. Lynx powered his Arc-Reactor and attached it to the massive cannon and added more energy to the weapon as he fired it. He left a massive hole in its head.

However, he had stayed in one spot for too long as the players within the _Mega-Zord_ could bring up its hands and snatch Lynx from the sky. He could not move his arms as they were pushed to his sides, and his massive proton cannon had left him as he needed to use both of his arms to wield such a massive weapon. He activated his missile launcher which was attached to his shoulder and began firing it at random, trying to get the massive _Mega-Zord_ to let go of him. He also activated his boosters in his boots to fly, and activated his small mini-gun which was on his opposite shoulder. He was trying everything he could to break free. However, his one-man armor was no match for this titan that he was facing. Sweat beaded his brow in the real world as he decided what he could do.

He laughed. He was immortal, had all the ammunition, could fly faster, and yet was still not doing well against a few opponents that were beneath him. He activated his Arc Generator that was in the chest compartment of his armor. He stopped all other weapons from firing and concentrated all energy to his chest area. In the meantime, his enemies were trying to smash his skull against the ground. Of course, this had no effect as he was immortal. They were getting frustrated. Lynx could picture them arguing in the chest of the _Mega-Zord._ They had no idea what they were dealing with. Soon they would find out. He unleashed a massive ray of destructive force from his chest. He broke free from his enemies' grasp and took to the air just in front of the _Mega-Zord's_ chest. He powered up his Proton cannon once more and poured all the power he could muster right into the cannon. He fired it and destroyed his enemies as they all turned into coins. He was not part of a clan so had no use for the _Mega-Zord_. However, there were other things that the players possessed that he could get from their deaths. They respawned in different places around the map so that they could continue playing.

Three tanks of different worlds made their way to his position. They thought that he had used up all his reserves. While retaining energy was an issue, he still had other weapons that did not need energy. He pulled out a missile launcher that were standard in other games that was not attached to his Arc Generator. He fired missiles at the three tanks that were coming to get him. At first the missiles seemed to have no effect. He decided to switch tactics. He pulled out a laser sword that was not attached to his suit and began running at the nearest tank. They tried firing on his position but their attacks did nothing to him. He leapt onto the machine and went right to the top hatch, which opened. A soldier with a shotgun tried firing at Lynx, who just grabbed the weapon, yanked the soldier from the tank, and threw down a grenade. The grenade exploded. The tank kept moving. This time, Lynx went into the tank and fought with two players who were still alive in the tank.

He killed them and took control of the tank. He aimed and fired a round at one of the enemies. They fired back. Lynx closed his eyes, and activated his Heads- Up Display and made this tank his. He started driving the tank at full speed to the other tank that was to the left of him. He needed someone to fire the primary cannon at the enemy, and unfortunately, he had no one. He could only drive the tank, or stop and fire the cannon, but he could not do both. He decided to ram the other tank, and hopefully flip it over or something. He braced himself for the impact. His tank was so sturdy and resilient now that it was his. The other players' tank did not flip over easily. Lynx got out of the tank and pulled the Arc Reactor from his chest compartment. It needed to recharge. Luckily, he had 100 spares and so used one. He activated his Proton Cannon once more and fired it at the tank. He melted the tank and killed the four players that were inside.

Suddenly, the ground shook and Lynx was blasted to the ground. The last tank that was still there had fired upon him. Lynx gritted his teeth. He used an attack called _World Destroyer_ which allowed him to shoot several missiles into the air and they rained down upon the tank and the players that dared to attack him. He fired a tank busting rocket at the tank, and it opened with flames, coins and gear that Lynx then gathered. He was about to leave when there was a loud sound. Lynx looked around and saw that a _Gundam_ from the _Gundam Wing_ series had landed close to him. It had a massive rifle on its left arm. It raised its weapon and aimed it right at Lynx.

"Fuck." Lynx said as he was blasted away from the _Gundam_.

He slammed against a cliff and in the real world felt sensation all over his body from the X1 suit that he was wearing that he had won by winning the race to find Halliday's first key to get his fortune. Lynx was about to get up when a massive fist slammed into his avatar. His Avatar was stuck in the cliff. He tried wiggling his way to freedom however the rocks would not let him. He swore under his breath and opened his Heads-Up Display to look for something that could help him. He activated something from his utility compartment in his abdomen. A green piece of plutonium fell out. Normally, he would have needed a special device to harness the power of the radiated material, but he decided that he would try something. He activated his massive proton cannon and it broke through the cliff that he was in, freeing his arms. He shot at the _Gundam_ while finding the plutonium. He shot it with his right arm's repulsor beam and it exploded. It wrapped him up in a green inferno which would have killed him. He turned on the flight mode in his suit and tried to maintain control as he flew through the nuclear fallout storm that raged on. He was unharmed as he was using the Easter egg that he had won. The _Gundam_ was nowhere to be seen. Even coins were missing. Maybe they were destroyed as the blast had changed the map forever.

Dark clouds formed as the fallout spread throughout the map that Lynx was playing on. Lightning and thunder became evident as the sky lighted up, and then there was the boom that followed. Lynx laughed as he saw other players come out with different vehicles. Some had tanks, others had other vehicles that either walked or drove but were different from tanks as they had upper humanoid bodies that could turn and pick up items, or use massive machine guns. They aimed rocket launchers and mini-guns up at him and fired at will. Lynx used his increased speed to zip through the air erratically, flying straight, then turning 90 degrees, then changing direction and fired tank missiles at his enemies. Tank treads exploded. The vehicles got shot down and burned. Lynx picked up their gear and coins and continued destroying those that came back to attack him.

He found that someone had an upgrade for armor piercing rounds. It was a modification and since he would never run out of bullets, he applied it to his avatar. He started firing his mini-gun that was attached to his shoulder and his bullets pounded into the vehicles of the enemies he was facing. He fired several other tank missiles and successfully destroyed his enemies. Lynx laughed as one by one the players left as he had taken most of their coins and whatever specialty items that they were planning to use during their match. Lynx looked at all if his items that he had claimed. He had successfully collected heavy duty powers that should have been used to defeat tank-like enemies. He could destroy strong opponents with the items that he had stolen. He also had a lot of coins that he could buy some things instead of scavenging for them. He decided to do just that as he left the irradiated world.

He got out of the OASIS and used special programming that copied some of the code from the Easter eggs, which he scanned and used the coding to give his Avatar unlimited fuel. He could now fly for a longer period. He looked at all that he had gotten and ranked them from strongest attacks to weakest. He looked at what could come in handy with a fight against someone like him; immortal. He made sure that these items could be brought out into the OASIS with a press of a button. He went back in, and wanted everyone to know that he was on the loose; ready to defeat the High Five and their allies. There was a map where players were dancing to their favorite songs. He burst in through the roof and let down some bombs which exploded on contact. Several players transformed into coins, while others ran as they were not the battling type, or had no access to their gear at the time. Lynx activated his shoulder mounted mini-gun and began firing into the crowd as he crashed to the ground, landing on his feet. Three players unlocked their fighting skins and looked at Lynx.

"What the fuck are you doing?" One person asked, dressed like _the Punisher_.

"You know no guns are allowed in here, don't you?" Another person said, in a skin that they made their own with armor and weapons.

"I've come to draw blood." Lynx said. "I will be the one."

The nearest person pulled out a golden gauntlet and tried smashing his fist into Lynx's face. Lynx blocked the punch and slammed his heel into the player's abdomen. He opened a laser pointer-like weapon in his wrist and shot a small laser into the eyes of another player. The player brought up their hands to shield their eyes and they tried shooting a pistol at Lynx, who took the bullets head on. He did not bother ducking, or flying but instead walked right up to the player and placed two mines on his chest. The mines exploded, turning the player into coins, which Lynx picked up. Other players just turned back into their normal avatars and escaped from the dancehall. With no one to oppose him, Lynx decided it was time to end other people's fun. He looked through his inventory and found that someone from the previous map had planned to use a nuclear bomb on a Scarab. He would have jumped or land somehow on the Scarab and plant the bomb and get off before the Scarab exploded. Now, it was in Lynx's hands. He made sure to use his copy codes so that he could use this device more than once. He placed one bomb in the dance hall and flew out the hole in the ceiling that he had come in from. He counted down, and then the whole place lit up like a small star.

Now armed with these types of bombs, Lynx now sought to spread all throughout the OASIS, killing players, stealing their items, and laying waste to all that they held dear.

* * *

Mark held up a piece of paper that he had printed off the computer. It was the address for Nick Harvey's office. He had printed off the directions to the office and used a bus to get there. He had gone home when his classes were finished, and for once did not stay back to help clean the school for Community Service Hours. He changed his clothes and made his way to the office. It was a sunny day, so he wore blue jeans, and a black dress shirt with short sleeves. He also wore casual brown dress shoes and a silver watch his aunt had given him for his birthday. He opened the door and saw that he needed to go up to the third floor. He used the stairs because he preferred to be active and not use an elevator. He saw that the office was at the end of a long hallway. For some reason, he felt dread creep inside his stomach as he walked down the hallway. It wasn't a dark hallway. There were several doors leading to other offices and they were all lit and had small windows on the door for people to look through. Mark found himself standing in front of the door. What would happen when he walked through the door?

Well, he did not come all that way for nothing. He opened the door and found a waiting room with no one inside it. There was a middle-aged woman sitting at a desk, looking at files on a computer screen. Or she might have been playing Solitaire. Mark could not see, and did not want to call her out on it. He cleared his throat.

"Hello." The woman said, looking up, smiling. "Do you have an appointment to see the doctor?"

"Ugh," Mark replied lamely. "I didn't know I needed to make one to see doctor Harvey."

" _Doctor Harvey?"_ The woman asked, raising her eyebrow. "Nick's no doctor."

"I thought he had a PHD?" Mark said.

"He does, but he's not practicing now." She said. "He needs to get more experience before he feels he is ready to become a full-fledged doctor. I'm talking about Doctor Dundas."

"I'm just here to see Nick," Mark said. "But I didn't make an appointment so I guess I should go home then."

"Hey, you must be Mark." A man's voice said from behind him.

Mark turned around and saw that his head was at the man's chest. Mark had to look up to look in the man's eyes. He looked just like how he was in the pictures that were online. This was Nick Harvey. Mark nodded his head.

"I'm a friend of Amira's." Mark said.

"Yeah, I know, you and I have already spoken on the phone." Nick said, and then turned his attention to the secretary. "Carol, do I have anything left for today?"

"Just the normal paperwork." The secretary, Carol said.

"Ok, so Mark, I have time to see you." Nick said. "Follow me."

Mark waved good-bye to Carol and followed Nick to his office. Nick ushered Mark in.

"Did you want some green tea?" Nick asked Mark.

"Uh," Mark said shyly. "Yeah sure."

Nick poured two cups of tea from a teapot on his desk. It was a small office, but the view was spectacular. The office was close to the lake. There were pictures and statues all over the office. It felt like home. Nick sat at his desk which had a laptop on it as well. There was a printer in the office. There were several files on his desk which he would be going over later. Mark saw that Nick had his University Degree hanging up on the wall next to a picture of him and his wife with their son. Nick offered Mark the cup of tea.

"I'm sorry, did you want sweetener with your tea?" Nick asked.

"No, its fine like this." Mark said. "I like your office."

"Thanks man, my partner came in to give it life, because she has better taste in design than I do."

"Was the secretary your partner?"

"I mean my wife, I just don't like calling her my wife because for a while we lived together but had not considered getting married. I prefer calling her my partner because it's an equal relationship."

"Oh okay. And is that your son in the picture beside your degree?"

"Yup, his name is Liam. He will be five years old in August. They are my pride and joy."

"Amira only mentioned you the other day. I admit, I did look you up based on your phone number. I saw that you have a few pictures online as well as what you did before starting to work here."

"Yeah, I used to be a cop. I decided that the late shifts and time away from my partner was not for me. It was not right for us as I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Liam. When he was born, my partner took Maternity Leave, and then when her time was up, I took Paternity Leave. He was never alone for the first few months of his life. Eventually I had to trust someone, though. We signed Liam up at a daycare which was in the neighborhood for two decades. People never complained about it so we signed him up. He's gotten so big now, he's heavy to pick up. But enough about me. Amira said that you are quite the piano player."

"Yeah, I've been going to piano lessons for almost a decade now. My siblings and I all play the piano. Some people in my grade think I'm gay because I play it…"

"How do you know that?"

"I hear them laughing. I heard one guy tell their friends that I was gay because I dressed business like so that I could play the piano for them for the talent show."

"You respect your peers, and they spit in your face. Trust me, you don't want these people in your life. They are toxic. Focus on the good, although right now it might be hard since you see these people every day, but think of Amira. She does not believe any of the rumors that are going around. People can make up their minds for themselves, and not let others dictate how we live our lives."

"And that's another problem. My parents are forcing us to focus on school right now. They are saying that we should not focus on getting girlfriends or boyfriends because they won't last forever. My parents think the same way about friends. We should only do the work for now so that we get a stable job in the future."

"While I agree with your parents on some things, you can't just live like that. Humans are social animals. We need contact with other people. Just give your friends a hug next time you see them. Better yet, give Amira a hug, so then no one will think you are gay."

"I feel so lonely. But I don't want to go against my parents. I don't know what to do."

"I get the feeling that these issues have been present in your life for a long time now. It won't be easy but you need to talk about these issues with your parents. You need balance in your life. You're not the type of person who would just skip school all day with your friends. You honor your parents and try your best."

"I'm also not that smart. I only have College grade courses. Amira is in University courses. What if she graduates from high school, and while she goes to University finds someone whose more her equal?"

"Something like that can happen to any of us. I work out, I live an active life style, and I work. I can meet other people who work out as well. Hell, I can talk to Carol. But, Wendy, my partner, must have faith that I will not cheat on her. You need more confidence. I suggest you start taking Martial Arts studies. This would relieve stress and get you out there. I know you probably use the OASIS, but that's no way to live. You need human interaction. Martial Arts can help you."

"You've given me a lot to think about. Thanks for the tea."

"Any time. Listen, if you need me anywhere or anytime, I'll be there for you. You can trust me Mark. You're a good guy."

"Thanks Mister Harvey."

"Just call me Nick."

Mark nodded and they finished their tea. Mark left the office with the feeling that a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He headed to Fraticelli's to meet Amira. Change was inevitable. He felt that this might be the calm before the storm…

 **GoldDragonZ** : I wish my guidance counsellor talked to me like this. I wish we could just go somewhere and talk to someone who would give us advise. There doesn't seem to be anyone though…Please enjoy this story as I write it.


	9. Chapter 9

Ready Player One: The Adventures of Jack

Chapter Nine

 **GoldDragonZ** : Thank you for reading. The story continues.

Mark made sure that his hair was combed nicely. He looked at himself in the mirror, and breathed deeply. He had arrived at Fraticelli's ten minutes before five o'clock. He was sweating a little bit and took the time to calm down. He needed to wash his face with cold water. He sighed and left the bathroom. He saw that Amira was waiting for him.

"Hey Amira," Mark said, smiling as he walked up to her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good." She said smiling back. "How are you?"

"I'm good. I saw Nick Harvey earlier today."

"Yeah he's been a good mentor to me. I thought that he could help you out."

"He said I should go out with you."

"I would really like that."

"Okay, so where do you want to sit?"

"Jessica, our friends and I usually sit by the window, wherever there is an open space."

"Okay, let's go."

The couple went to sit down at a table that was vacant closest to a window. A waitress walked up to them.

"Good evening." The waitress said as she gave Mark and Amira two menus. "My name is Candice, I will be your waitress. What can I get you to drink?"

"Water for now." Amira said.

"I'll have water as well." Mark said.

"Okay, take your time looking at the menu." Candice said. "I will be back in two minutes to take your order."

And with that the waitress left them to go over what they wanted to eat.

"So, what's good here?" Mark asked.

"For starters, maybe try the Gelato." Amira told him. "They have vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut, or pistachio. Which one would you prefer?"

"I'll try the chocolate." Mark replied. "What about you? What do you want to get?"

"I like the coffee flavored Tiramisu." She said.

"Okay, let's order." Mark said, putting up his hand to get the waitress' attention.

"Hey what will you be having today?" Candice said as she came up to the couple with a pen and paper pad, ready to take down their orders.

"I'll have coffee flavored Tiramisu." Amira said.

"And I'll have chocolate gelato." Mark replied.

"Wow, skipping dinner altogether and going right for dessert." Candice beamed. "You guys aren't kidding around. Okay, I'll let my chef know what you want and be back with your orders."

And with that, Candice left them once more. Mark and Amira shared a laugh and quieted down. Mark blushed and looked away from Amira.

"I like you, Amira." He said softly. "Thank you for this. I'm glad we can get to know each other better. I wish I started speaking with you sooner. This time in a few months, you'll be off to University, and I …I don't know where I'll be…"

"Mark." Amira said as she reached for his hand which he held together in front of him on the table. "We have the OASIS. It doesn't matter where I am, as we have that, we will be fine. I'm not the type of person who will sleep around or will find other men. I like you for you, Mark."

"I don't deserve you, Amira." Mark said softly.

"You have to have faith, Mark. Have faith in me. I will be there. I will help you up out of the abyss that you find yourself in. Please Mark. Don't give up on me."

"I'll try."

Amira smiled as she stroked his hand with hers. They did not speak for a while, and only immersed themselves in each other's presence. Candice came with their desserts.

"Before we eat, do you mind if I say a little prayer?" Mark asked.

"Go ahead." Amira said.

"Dear God." Mark began. "I turn to you for support. Whenever I stumble, I pray that you be there. Whenever I am weak, you lift me up. Please bless Amira Qad as she longs to help me, and develop a relationship with me. I pray God, that I can help her as well. I pray that you bless the food that we are about to consume. Please bless this establishment and the hands who prepared this food. Please bless us in your Holy Name, amen."

"Amen." Amira said, and they began eating their desserts.

"That was awesome." Mark said upon finishing. "But I'm still interested in more."

"Yeah, me too." Amira said. "You should try the Cannoli."

They ordered Cannoli, Semifreddo, Tarufo, and finished with Sparkling Rosemary Limeade.

"Wow that was good." Mark said. "I think I'm going to get sick later."

"I love doing this occasionally." Amira said. "You can't do this every day."

"You know Prom is coming up, so I wanted to officially ask you if you wanted to be my date, Amira."

"You know it." Amira said happy that he asked her in real life. "My friends are renting a limo…unfortunately everyone needs to pay their share."

"Yeah, I was going to go with my friends and pay for their limo as well." Mark said. "I can just pay whoever is paying for the limo that you and your friends will be taking instead."

"Are you sure you want to come with me and my friends?" Amira asked. "I don't want to come in between you and your friends."

"They are my best friends." Mark said. "I would be happy with them if they got a date. Yeah, I should talk to them first to find out how they feel about it. I will see you at Prom anyways."

"We will dance the night away." Amira said, smiling.

They continued talking about school and life, and then at eight o'clock, they were finished and went home.

* * *

Friday, the day of the announcement came. The High Five had not heeded Mark's warning that Lynx would show up. Mark remained in _The Tensa Zangetsu_ , watching the proceedings as Jack_100292402. Tom_001 and Gadanza were there in the crowd. Jack's two Mac Cannons were powered up to maximum. He had built and bought several dozen interceptors, which were robot ships that would carry out his will no matter what the task. They were built to fix things, attack things, and carry things. Jack opened a channel. Players all around the OASIS were at the presentation where they would see the heroes of the OASIS speak about what they had planned for the OASIS. Others were monitoring the presentation at different locations throughout the OASIS, much like Jack was doing.

"Hello everyone!" Parzival said to a rowdy crowd. "It's been a while since the High Five has spoken to you. There are several things that we want to bring to your attention. Please, quiet down so that we can begin."

Everyone watching held their breath. They waited to hear what the High Five had to say. Art3mis took the stage after Parzival.

"Hello everyone." She said. "We are announcing several challenges. Halliday had left us full control of the OASIS, and we want to share what we have. We have had our best programmers come up with different tasks that you must do to find Easter eggs that we have hidden throughout the OASIS. The Easter eggs will grant you different abilities that you can use throughout the OASIS. One Easter egg that we are beginning with is called the _Superhero_ egg, which allows your Avatar the ability to fly without using energy reserves. One was the power to turn your avatar invisible for a short time, however they could not have the ability forever. One is a cache of special weapons. There are various caches that have been left throughout the OASIS. They contain spells, special ammunition, heavy weapons, costumes, skins, accessories, uniforms, hair styles, vehicles, power-ups and links to different websites that allows free access for a certain amount of time."

Art3mis stepped down, and Shoto came to the stand.

"We have other items hidden throughout the OASIS that are very different than the Easter eggs that we just mentioned." Shoto told the crowds. "We have Skulls that make the game play more challenging for you. One skull takes away the automatic aiming mechanism. One makes your health shorter, or your armor weaker so that you must be smarter while you battle other players. One makes your vehicles lose speed. We will come out with more Easter eggs and Skulls as time goes by."

Aech took the stand.

"Now, with the programmers we have working with us, I can expand my Garage." Aech said. "I have opened up several garages where you can come and have your items fixed for a fee of course. We have programmers playing and they will help you fix your vehicles, weapons, or other tech."

Parzival came to the stand once more.

"We also have extended our reach to other genres." Parzival said. "When new movies come out, you can pay to see them here on the OASIS alone, or with a group of friends. You can use Google Maps and look at a location in 3D. You can find new dance moves, different dancing games and different Meetups that have been planned. Halliday and Morrow had wanted to have the OASIS as an escape. We want to keep with that spirit, but we also would like to urge you all to come out in the real world to talk about things that you have done. There are still things that you can do in the real world. Go out for something to eat with friends. We have reviews for restaurants online. Give cinemas and theme parks your business, otherwise they may close forever. The OASIS will continue to be unavailable on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that you can form real bonds with people in the real world. Just talk to each other."

The crowd soaked this in. For a while, no one knew what to think. The High Five were willing to share the wealth. They were interested in keeping things in the real world alive. They wanted people to go out on their own to form bonds. They also wanted to make gameplay in the OASIS more attractive so that people would keep playing. Players started giving thumbs up to the speech. And then Parzival started talking once more when they were all finished.

"There is also some bad news." He said. "There is someone out there who wants to destroy what Halliday and Morrow have built. He has destroyed several maps which will take our programmers weeks to repair and restore to their previous state. His online name is Lynx. If you have heard about him, please try and talk to him. He's also stolen several items belonging to other players. Normally, when you are killed in the OASIS, you lose coins, but somehow, he was able to take gear from dead players as well. He has also stolen vehicles. We were testing out new Easter eggs, and he could detect them without us telling everyone about the eggs. He has unlimited ammunition, the vehicles he has can move faster, and he cannot be killed by conventional ways. He wants to be the only player with these abilities, however we want other players to be able to play and win things that can last. Unfortunately, we have no choice. We want him to come to justice. The OASIS is for all players to play fairly. We are looking to have someone, one of you to help apprehend him. We are offering 500 million coins for him. This is a bounty. Magic and specialty items like black holes seem to work against him, so please, find something that can end his reign of tyranny."

And then there was a loud boom. An _Imperial Star Destroyer_ from _Star Wars_ appeared right above the meeting place that the High Five were broadcasting from. A blue ball suddenly appeared above the players before the _Star Destroyer_ opened fire, raining green laser blasts onto the unsuspecting crowd. The blue ball was a spell, and shielded them from the attack. Black Interceptors from _The Tensa Zangetsu_ zipped towards the _Star Destroyer._ Lynx seemed to be preoccupied with the interceptors that he did not notice the much bigger ship, the _Tensa Zangetsu_ appear on the map.

"Per the projections, we have a 65% chance of hitting players who are not participating in the battle." The computer said to Jack. "That is if you choose to fire both Mac Rounds at the same time."

"Then we need something else." Jack_100292402 said.

He ordered his ship to monitor the situation and fire upon the enemy with lasers or missiles if anything changed. They also had to be prepared as the interceptors were once again being shot out of the sky. They were just not fast enough. Jack went deeper into his ship. He opened his vault and went into the innermost chamber of his armory. He needed to provide a palm print and facial recognition to access what he was after. It was a weapon that he never thought that he would have to use. He went down on his knees and said a prayer.

"Dear God." Jack said. "I know this is not real life. Whatever I do here will not have a lasting effect, but I need to protect others. I need to defeat the enemy Lynx so that he doesn't steal from other people again. In Jesus' precious name, I pray that I am successful in my mission, amen."

He got up, and donned the armor of the Gold Dragon. His player went through a metamorphosis. He grew two feet taller. His arms and legs tripled in size. He also had to change his hair style to accommodate a golden helmet. Gold armor appeared all over his body. The head of the dragon was on his left arm with red eyes that just sparkled, and out of the mouth was a black cannon. On the right arm was the tail, which ended in a broad obsidian blade with Japanese characters written on the blade in Gold. His feet were like talons, and he wore a black and red cape. His eyes glowed blue as well. He went to the nearest exit and left the ship, leaving orders for the ship to retreat.

Upon seeing the enemy disembark from his ship, Lynx decided to leave his as well. Lynx raised his eyebrow. This was not the same Jack that he had previously faced. This person was wearing Gold Armor. He was seven feet tall. His arms and legs looked akin to tree trunks in size. Jack aimed his cannon right at Lynx's ship. The blast was bright blue and brightened up the area so much that all Lynx and the other players saw was blue. The ship had been hit with an electromagnetic blast that powered it down. The _Star Destroyer_ no longer fired at anyone and started falling from the sky. Lynx had no choice but to put it away.

"You have some skill." Lynx said as he contacted Jack. "But you are no match for me."

Lynx took out his Proton Cannon and fired it at Jack, who countered with a red beam which was meant to destroy and not depower. They caused a massive explosion. Neither of them were hurt. Jack powered up a jet pack that was on his back. He flew towards Lynx. Lynx took out his laser sword which was like _Halo_ laser sword. Jack aimed his right arm, and fired the blade of his sword, which was attached to a black chain. Their weapons rammed into each other. Jack pulled back his blade, and flew closer to Lynx.

"You have a limited amount of time, I'm guessing that you can use that suit." Lynx said. "That's how those idiots designed this world. They wanted to give people limits so that everything could be fair. But _I_ have no limits. I will be a god! I will design this world into one where I can rule supreme. The High Five were given a gift, but they squandered it. They only chose to give people Easter eggs after I found the first one. They are hypocrites. How about this. You join me, and I give you back your abilities, the immortality, the unlimited ammunition, and the speed. Without those, you can't do anything against me. Me on the other hand."

Lynx fired several missiles right at Jack. Jack's armor on his back combined with the blade on his right arm and formed a shield. The missiles exploded, flinging Jack from the air to the ground. He got to his feet as Lynx landed several meters away. Lynx used a tank missile, which Jack slashed out of the air with his sword, causing another explosion. This gave Lynx an opportunity to strike as he used his laser sword to cut into Jack. His armor held, but the force of the attack spun Jack right around. Jack lifted his left arm, pulled out his cannon and fired it at Lynx, who used a proton shield to stop the electromagnetic shock from depowering his suit.

"Did you think something like that would work against me?" Lynx seethed. "I am a god. You have nothing that can harm me. Your suit on the other hand will either get damaged, or depower over time. This battle cannot last forever. I will win. I always win."

Jack swung his blade, not willing to relent. Lynx grabbed the blade with his bare hands. Jack was not finished as he brought out his cannon. He aimed it at Lynx.

"Let go, or I make you let go." Jack said through gritted teeth.

Lynx laughed as he kicked Jack right into the solar plexus. This forced Jack back. It also ripped his blade out of his arm. Jack held out his right hand and he whispered several spells at once. A blue ball blasted from Jack's hand, smashing into Lynx. Lynx tried to retaliate, but then Black chains erupted from the ground he was standing on. Yellow rings of light surrounded Lynx and held him in space. Jack ran and stopped in front of Lynx. He aimed his cannon right at Lynx's head and fired without consideration of anyone who might get in the way.

"What the hell was that?" Lynx asked when Jack was finished.

Lynx broke through the chains and the rings of magic with ease. He brought out his massive proton cannon and fired it right at Jack at point blank. Jack was sent hurtling through the stands where people had congregated to watch the speech that the High Five were giving. Jack got up to his feet. His chest piece was cracked. He aimed his cannon once more at Lynx, who took to the air. Like a bug, he dashed left and right, making it hard for Jack to track him. Lynx fired several missiles which exploded all around Jack. Jack fell to the ground a second time. He tried getting up, however a massive boot planted itself on his left arm. He could not move it. Lynx looked down at his enemy and brought his hands together to make a ball of energy.

"You poor, insignificant piece of shit." "Lynx said, shaking his head. "You seriously thought you could beat me with this gaudy armor? Face it, Jack, was it? You're all by yourself."

Suddenly, someone grabbed Lynx from behind in a bear hug.

"Jack is not alone." Aech said.

"He has all of us." Gadanza said, flinging the Pokemon, Muk right at Lynx's face to obscure his vision.

Art3mis ran towards Jack. She had something in her hands. It was an Easter egg.

"This was created especially for you, Jack." She said. "It will counteract the effects that Lynx had on you. Together we can end this."

"He can't be stopped." Jack said. "He's immortal here in the OASIS. He's just like you and I."

"We have come up with a solution." Art3mus said, however she seemed reluctant. "Have you ever seen the classic film _The Matrix?_ "

"Yeah, that was one of the most groundbreaking film back in the 1990s." Jack said. "What about it?"

"Do you remember what happened at the end?" Art3mis asked.

"Neo showed everyone something special and flew away?"

"No, before that."

"Neo kills Agent Smith?"

"Yes. We can grant you all the powers that have been yours for a long time." Art3mis explained. "You can be in this form right now and shoot rounds like your Mac rounds on the _Tensa Zangetsu_. You can fly faster than your _Interceptors._ You will be able to cycle through all your spells and weapons without having a previous load out. With this egg, we can grant you all of this for a short time. You will be immortal, powerful, and you will be the one to make this end. But it comes with a price. You can only use this egg once, and once you use it all, you will disappear from the OASIS forever until Lynx comes back. You are the only one that can use this egg, and its affects will also be the same for Lynx as it will make him disappear. If he finds a way back online, you will come back with everything you have. We need you to do this. You are the ace we have in the hole."

Jack's eyes widened, although no one could see them. He looked up at Aech and Lynx, who were fighting each other. Parzival was using a massive, robotic fist to punch Lynx, but it was not having any affect. Lynx pulled out two laser swords and cut both in half. This move transformed them into coins and gear, which Lynx gladly took up after grabbing and blasting Muk into a charred heap. Tom used a missile launcher to try and kill Lynx, but Lynx swatted it right out of the air. Tom aimed a Mac 10 carefully and fired at Lynx. Lynx fired right back, his bullets rupturing Tom's body, turning him also into coins. Gadanza pulled out his _Keyblade_ from _Kingdom Hearts_ and started slashing right and left. He tried stabbing Lynx, but Lynx grabbed the blade with his left hand, and pointed his right palm up at Gadanza's head. Gadanza was turned into coins. Daito and Shoto leapt into battle, firing different weapons at Lynx. Suddenly, there was a surge as other players witnessing the battle became bold. They could not just sit here and watch the heroes of the OASIS be killed. They started surrounding Lynx, firing missiles, spells, and other techniques to either kill Lynx, or render him powerless. Binding spells were cast so that his arms and legs were tied together. He used codes to break out of the restraints that no one could see. He fired at the other enemies with missiles, using his World Breaker missiles to destroy everyone around him. He flew into the air and dropped mines. Other characters took to the air and tried fighting him. However, they did not have luck as Lynx used missiles that locked onto other players and went after them. He used missile launchers and ended the players right then and there.

There was no time to think. Jack nodded and grabbed the Easter egg. He slammed it onto his chest. Out of the sky, the Tensa Zangetsu came, turned miniature and flew right into Jack's armored body. His ship, his weapons, his museum were all now part of him which also included the Easter Eggs, which were restored. He flew right up to Lynx and grabbed him. They flew away from the area which still had many players respawning after fighting Lynx. They took to space and went back to one of the worlds that Lynx had devastated. The air was green with radiated mist. Lightning and thunder became evident. Jack threw his enemy to the ground. Lynx got up in an instant, and fired a tracking missile right at Jack. Jack used his shield and batted the missile away. This time, nothing happened to Jack. He aimed his cannon at Lynx, who pulled out his proton cannon right at the same time and they fired at each other. And then, just like his _Optimus Primal_ skin, cannons came up out of Jack's back and aimed right at Lynx. Lynx thought that as the blasts stopped he would have time to do something else.

Jack fired miniature Mac Cannon rounds right at Lynx who was blasted into cliffs. Jack opened his armor and several pieces of it turned into the _Interceptors_ that he had been using to battle space craft. He made them attack Lynx. Lynx was pummeled into the ground. Jack made them come back. His armor started shifting as his helmet and several other pieces formed a new gold blade on his right arm.

"Well, Lynx." Jack said. "You and I will probably never meet in real life. If we do see each other, I'm guessing we won't know who each other is. If you are my friend, I would want you to continue being my friend."

"What you think this is over?" Lynx asked. "This is just the beginning. I'll keep killing players until you and I meet again."

"Not this time, Vlad." Jack said, revealing that he knew exactly who Lynx was. "There will be consequences to your actions, as there are consequences to mine. I am no god. I will give up everything just to save everyone else because it's my duty. I choose to end this now before you infect the whole OASIS with your anger. I don't hate you. You were probably having fun and got carried away. I do the same. I kill people on the OASIS although it is against the law to kill in the real world. We indulge in illegal activity here so I understand the need to express your anger with people. Maybe you should talk to someone in the Real World."

"Oh Jack," Lynx said. "Nice speech, but do you think your fancy armor and your holier than thou attitude is enough to stop me? You're nothing but a scrub noob."

"You're probably right," Jack said. "But I cannot stand idly by why you steal and destroy things. Halliday and Morrow spent a lot of time creating this world. It's in their honor that I help defeat you. Plus, you have no idea what I have to give up to stop you."

Jack ran forward with his new Golden Blade. The cannon on his left arm turned into a booster pack that flung him forward. Lynx barely had time to act. The Gold Blade sliced through Lynx's body like butter. Lynx screamed in anger as he realized that he had been wounded. Jack closed his eyes as his armor started glowing white. First, his avatar and all that he had on the OASIS disappeared. Next, Lynx started disappearing a well.

"You haven't seen the last of me, I will be back." Lynx said as his avatar began disintegrating into coins.

* * *

Mark pulled off his Virtual Reality Headset and sighed. He placed it in the corner so no one stepped on it. He took off his X1 suite, and cleaned it as he had sweated a little bit inside it. He put it in a drawer up in his room. He took out his cellphone and looked up Nick's number.

"Hello?" Nick said as Mark had called him. "This is Nick."

"Hi Nick, this is Mark." Mark greeted him. "I just need someone to talk to."

"Yeah man, I have a few minutes I can spare." Nick replied. "What's up?"

"Do you know anything about the OASIS?"

"Everybody is using it. And then recently there were reports of several bombings. Some people thought it was an act of cyber bullying or terrorism. I used it quite a bit before my son was born. It's a great escape. Its good exercise as well, if you subscribe to something like that. What's been happening?"

"There was this hacker who claimed Three Easter eggs. Artemis and I joined forces and relied on each other to get the eggs as well. All three of us got the eggs, however, this hacker, who goes by the name of Lynx did not want to share. He was a coding expert and could do things no one else could. Were you online recently?"

"Dude, I'm at work. It's against the rules for us to be on any social media, let alone a game console."

"Sorry, I guess I am kind of a noob."

"No this is something important, otherwise you would not be talking to me."

"He's the one who bombed several maps online. I believe that the High Five are going to fix things but they needed my help. They gave me the ability to defeat him, but it came at a cost. My Avatar and everything I had was deleted and will only be brought back if he hacks in and returns to the OASIS again."

"Why you? They own the OASIS. Surely they could have chosen someone that worked for them directly to create an avatar and supply it with all the highest scoring tech in the OASIS."

"There was no time as he attacked them while they were giving a speech. It was either attack him right there before he stole other items, or let him keep getting away with it."

"And what's to stop him from buying another console and just making a new Avatar?"

"He won't have the Easter eggs that he won. And then I have another problem as well."

"What happened?"

"Amira and I were planning on spending time together on the OASIS while we go to College and University. She's smart, and I don't want to hold her back. I'm scared that she might meet someone new when she goes."

"And what's to stop you from doing the same?"

"Her and I did speak about this. We just need to have faith with each other. That's what she had said."

"You're right, Amira is a smart girl. But I guess this might come as a blow to your friends who want to hang out with you as well. Can't you just create a new Avatar somehow?"

"The High Five may need me again someday. I will wait until they call."

"That's not fair, you paid, or your parents paid good money for that console. You need to talk to the High Five again somehow. That is totally not fair to you, to your friends and family, or to Amira. It's not right."

"Now that you mention it, you are right. But I was happy to be a hero."

"You should be rewarded for doing what's right, plus he was everyone's enemy; the High Five should do more against hackers like him. Did you want me to talk to them on your behalf?"

"What? No, that's not necessary. I'll talk to them and see what they might say. Thank you, Nick."

"Don't mention it, buddy."

* * *

Vladislav put down his Virtual Reality Headset. He was confused. The High Five had used something powerful against him. He turned on his computer and jacked it into the OASIS as a bot. He ran through his battle with the High Five, Jack and the other players online at the time. He watched what happened between Art3mis and Jack. So, Jack had sacrificed himself to stop Lynx. With that kind of power, it would not matter if he got his gear back and the Easter eggs. They won. They stopped him from carrying out his plans. He had to get off the computer and take a long while to think about what his next plan would be. He called Lewis Roger.

"Hey bud." Lewis said. "I saw what you did on the OASIS. Are you okay? The High Five destroyed you. They are taking apart your _Star Destroyer_ right now to pay all the players that you stole stuff from."

"So, people are stealing my gear now?" Vladislav said. "What about my Easter eggs?"

"As soon as you died, Parzival and Artemis went and grabbed them." Lewis said. "They looked through your inventory and gave everything you stole back to the players you stole them from. You've lost everything."

Vladislav swore in Estonian. His evil reign in the OASIS was brought to an abrupt end.

* * *

The next day was Saturday. Mark and his siblings went to their piano lessons. Mark was taught for one hour, Rodney was taught for one hour, and Alexandra was taught for one half hour. They were making progress. Their mother was there, as the teacher had to tell her everything that the children needed to work on. Their teacher also wrote down everything in dictation books for each student. They did well and made their mother proud. They left their teacher's office and went back home. Their mother cooked their dinner while they worked on homework for school. They also did some chores, and when everything was done, after they ate and said a prayer, they played on the OASIS. However, it was odd that Mark was not playing as well.

"Mark, what's wrong?" His mother asked. "How come you aren't playing on your video game?"

"I lost everything." Mark replied. "There was this hacker, and there were other players counting on someone to stop him. They gave me this ability to beat him, but it costed everything. If he comes back, I will get everything back."

"What do you mean it cost you everything?" His mom asked.

"On the OASIS, we could get prizes for winning games." Mark began explaining. "I won a spaceship with robots and I was able to help people if they had broken items online. I had weapons, clothes, vehicles, and other things that I liked to collect online. It took me years since you bought me the console and the headset. Now all of it is gone. I can't create another avatar and start over in case the High Five need me to face the hacker again."

"This might be temporary. Think about it Mark; they may come up with a solution. If you helped a lot of people, they might miss you."

"My friends probably would miss me. There's also the girl I was telling you about. She wanted to keep in contact, and the only way to do it is to use the OASIS."

"You can use your cellphone to call her. I want you to be happy, Mark. You do need a job and the right education to get that job so that you can live happily."

"But that's in the future. Why can't I be happy now?"

"Everything takes time. There are phases to life, Mark. What you are interested in right now won't matter to you in five years. Believe me. There were times where I thought I would be a nurse. And then life happened, and now I'm into computers and building maintenance. I don't want you to feel sad, though. Your dad and I have given you kids everything. You don't need to work right now because we will pay for everything for you. We just need to know that you will do the right thing."

"I don't know. A friend of mine said that I need to have balance in life. No man is an island, and we need people."

"People do come and go, but I never stopped you from making friends. Please talk to us as well if there are any problems. You can trust adults, Mark."

"I want to make you and dad proud. But I also want to find that balance my friend was talking about. I'm not saying that I'm going to go out and drink with crack addicts, but I would like people to like me for me. I feel lonely…"

"I am sorry, Mark. Since you were a small child, I was telling you friends weren't important. But now, after hearing you say you are lonely, I want you to find someone you can be at peace with. This Amira girl, is she a good person? Do you know?"

"I have to talk to her more to get to know the real world. I think she is a lovely person, mom."

"I just want you to be happy, Mark. I don't want you to feel sad. You can come to us if you have any issues. You can trust us."

"You and dad…You guys say the same thing all the time. Education comes first, education comes first…But now I'm not so sure. Since you guys are all about learning, maybe it's not too late to start something new? I would like to start learning martial arts. With the time it will take to keep pursuing a good college to go to, with music and martial arts, I will be focused on different things and will not miss the OASIS."

"Are you sure it will not take away time from your studies?"

"It will help me be less stressed. I will be able to concentrate better. Its exercise; we all need to exercise, why not start now? Rodney and I can go."

"I'll ask your brother, and if he says yes, I will let you both go."

Mark smiled and went to tell his brother the good news.

* * *

 _Princess May_ revved the engine of her bright yellow _Porsche Boxster_. She was wearing a bright bluish green jumpsuit with a matching helmet. She began a race in eighth place. It was a track with many twists and turns. She needed to concentrate. She revved her engine as she waited for the countdown to begin. There were fast cars from many generations. People were using state of the art vehicles from different movies, plus some were real; people had bought and driven some of these cars. Others were like driving huge matchbox cars. This map was only about racing. It was against the rules to use weapons to stop other drivers, however players could ram into each other and force each other to crash. Princess May did not like cheating so would prefer just passing her fellow racers and not push them off the track or slam into them to spin out. She waited for the race to begin.

Then she saw that countdown begin in her Heads-Up Display.

3

2

1

GO!

The racers began firing up their engines and were off. Princess May drove like a professional. She passed two players, and then someone in front crashed. Mines started going off, destroying other players' cars. The players got out of the wreckage of their cars, swearing at each other. And then, out of no-where, a machine gun went off, destroying one of the players. The others scattered, going into different portals to leave the area despite their vehicle wreckage still being there. Tridosk appeared, after using up his active camouflage. May put her car into reverse, and looked back. Other players were going passed her, unaware of what was happening to the other players that were ahead of them. She got out of the car and opened a portal out of the arena. Suddenly, there was a big explosion, and Princess May was knocked down. The portal was just one foot away from her. Suddenly, Tridosk appeared in front of her very quickly.

"I have a message for your boyfriend." He said.

Princess May screamed.

 **GoldDragonZ** : I updated the entire story, looking for errors and things that did not make sense. I tried my best to make it better. I hope people like it.


	10. Chapter 10

Ready Player One: The Adventures of Jack

Chapter Ten

 **GoldDragonZ** : We left off where Tridosk faced Princess May…

She could not move. Tridosk had uttered a few words and suddenly she was paralyzed. In the real world, Amira was smashing her gloves, trying to activate her Avatar so that it could move again. They had gone into a portal, and he was carrying her like a sack. She had no idea where they were going. Suddenly, there was light. They entered a chatroom which resembled a warehouse. Within it were several items that Tridosk had collected. There was also his _TIE Interceptor_ which was perched on a special platform up in the air so that Tridosk could paint it or fix it. He put her down gently on a table.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked.

"I want you to meet my friend." Tridosk said. "I normally don't do things like this. I consider myself to be a good guy. Your boyfriend just hurt my friend. He stripped him of everything, so now, we need to remedy the situation. We want the High Five to give my friend Lynx everything that he owned, otherwise there will be consequences."

"What's to stop them from deleting you?" Princess May asked.

"They don't know that I have you." He said. "Only you know that we're locking up your avatar. Every time you come to the OASIS, you will be locked in a cage. If you decide to restart the game as a new avatar, it will only be a short time before Lynx finds you again. And then we will get you again. Tell your boyfriend that he needs to get the High Five to give Lynx back what's his, or you will be punished."

* * *

Amira reached up and tore the Headset off her head. She felt like screaming. She had spent a long time creating her avatar, gaining coins, creating clothes and skins. She would have to start all over again. But was it true, would the player Lynx find out about her making a new avatar again? And what happened between Mark and this Lynx character? No one told her anything. She decided to call Mark.

"Hello Amira." Mark said when she called.

"Hi Mark, how is it going?" She asked, although she was nervous.

"I'm good, how are you?" He asked.

"I have a problem." She said, and then she told him about Tridosk kidnapping her avatar in the OASIS.

"I am so sorry, Amira." He said. "I didn't want this to happen. I will tell the High Five and let us hope they can fix this."

Mark hung up with Amira, gritting his teeth. Somehow, Tridosk had found out that as Jack 100292402, Mark had danced and spoken to Amira as Princess May. No doubt, this was Lynx's doing. He dialed Helen's phone number and told her about what happened with Amira and Tridosk.

"There is no doubt that Lynx is using his friend's avatar," She said. "We need you to send your console to us so that we can help you regain your avatar and all of your abilities."

"Alright," Mark said.

They hung up. Later that day, Mark bought a box and some stamps. He texted Helen who sent him the address for the OASIS' headquarters. He wrapped up his console, put the stamps on the box and went to the mailing station to send it to the High Five and the OASIS headquarters. It would take some time for the console to reach the headquarters, and Mark hoped they could restore everything that had been negated when he defeated Lynx.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the headquarters, the High Five were having a meeting regarding Tridosk.

"He helped us even though he was friends with Lynx." Art3mis said. "It does not make any sense; why would he be so nice to us and then stab us in the back?"

"He was friends with Lynx before ever meeting us." Helen said. "He must not agree with what we did to his friend, even though Lynx was destroying things, and stealing things from other players. What are we going to do about it? It could be Lynx just using his friend's avatar. Mark, also known as Jack, is sending us his console for us to fix it so that he can reenter the OASIS and save his girlfriend."

"It might take some time for the console to come to us." Wade said. "In the meantime, we need to get in touch with Tridosk to see what he wants in exchange for us to save Princess May."

"We know what he wants." Toshiro said. "Tridosk only has Lynx as a friend online. He wants his friend's avatar back. However, there is no way we can give him everything that he once had as most of his items were stolen from other players."

"You're right." Helen said. "They want Lynx's avatar to come back online. Then, Princess May will be safe."

"We need Lynx to sign a contract." Wade said. "We will give him his avatar back, but he needs to follow the rules otherwise we will have Jack destroy his avatar once more."

"We need to speak to Tridosk." Akihide said.

They made plans to talk to the programmers at the OASIS headquarters. They really needed to be prepared if Lynx wanted to start a war with them. They ordered that all programmers find out the coordinates for Princess May's position on the OASIS. They needed to hack into Tridosk's chat room and save her if it came to that; if Tridosk and Lynx did not agree to the High Five's terms.

* * *

"Hello, this is Sensei Robert Alveredo?" A man said on the phone. "This is Rising Star's Martial Arts."

"Hello, my name is Mrs. Patel." Mark's mother said. "I have two sons who would be interested in learning martial arts. One is 15 years old and the other is 17 years old. They are going to high school."

"Okay, we are open every day of the week except Sunday." Sensei Alveredo said. "For teenagers and adults, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays classes are at 12: 00 pm in the afternoon, or 8:00 pm in the night. Tuesdays and Thursdays, classes are at 12:00 pm in the afternoon and 7: 30 pm in the night. We also offer one month free in the beginning. We offer different programs as well. We offer Jiu Jitsu, Karate, and boxing."

"I would like my children to be placed in karate, please." She said. "They need to exercise."

"Very well." Sensei Alveredo said. "For one year, you need to pay $2280 which includes free uniforms for the boys."

Mrs. Patel had done her homework, and found that this was reasonable as other dojos had costed more.

"Okay, so they will start today." She said.

"I will look forward to meeting them." Sensei Alveredo said. "They can wear sweatpants and t-shirts for their first lesson. I need to find out the dimensions for their uniforms."

"Thank you, sir." Mrs. Patel said.

"You're welcome." He replied, and then they hung up.

* * *

Mark was wearing a dark blue sweatpants and white t-shirt. His brother was wearing some dark blue shorts with a dark blue t-shirt. They were wearing socks on their feet as the master, Sensei Alveredo only allowed special shoes to be worn in the dojo. There were three other people there as well. There was a father and his daughter. They were both wore green belts on their white martial arts uniforms. They looked to be Indian in decent, just like Rodney and Mark. The girl appeared to be 13 years old. There was another man there, and he had a blue belt on his white uniform. His head was bald, and as he stretched, he could do the splits. Master Alveredo was wearing a special black uniform without a belt. He was average height, and was wearing glasses with circular frames. He was of oriental decent and had very short black hair.

"Welcome to Rising Star, boys." Master Alveredo said. "My name is Robert Alveredo. Most people call me Master Alveredo, Master or sir. Call me whichever suits you. Let me introduce you to your fellow classmates. This is George and his daughter Sheena. This is Andrew."

"Hey guys." Rodney said. "My name is Rodney Patel."

"Hey." Mark said as well. "I'm Mark."

"Let's begin by welcoming you to the dojo." The Master said. "This school was founded in 2005 by my master's master, Sensei June Alfred. She taught my master everything she knew. She died in 2024. Her legacy lives on, as my master, Carl Hughes continued teaching until he retired. He now lives in Barbados with his wife. I took over teaching and have been here in Canada for almost forty years now. Let me tell you about our Belt System. In the beginning, you will start with a White Belt. After learning everything you can, you will get a black belt. I am a sixth degree blackbelt. Next to White Belt is Orange Belt. Then it is Yellow. After that is purple, and then blue. After blue is green. After Green Belt is Brown Belt. And after Brown Belt is Black Belt. It can take up to five years for you to finish getting your black belt depending on how hard you work at it."

Master Alveredo turned to the other three students.

"You three, start your combination exercises, right and then left side." He told them, and quietly, they moved to a different part of the dojo as Master Alveredo returned to teaching the newcomers. "What do you know about fighting?"

"On the OASIS, if you hit someone on the back of the head, that can kill them." Rodney explained.

"Forget everything you were taught by your friends or what you think you know from video games." The master said. "In video games, you can fight for a long time. You can jump higher, you can survive wounds that would normally kill you. In reality, fights do not last that long. Have you guys ever get a papercut? It hurts a lot although it is a very small wound. I know that on the OASIS, or with any other game, you can get shot numerous times and still act like you haven't been hurt. You can survive a nuclear blast. You can act and have no consequence. In the gaming world, you can drive a car, crash it and nothing happens to the avatar that you are using. In the real world, you could die, even if your car is not totaled. The human body is very fragile. You need to increase your stamina. From this day forward, I want you to do this for homework; for half an hour, each morning, go jogging. Increase your stamina so that when you do start sparring with other students, you can last longer. The human body uses up oxygen, and your muscles start to ache. Lactic acid builds up in the muscles as you use them. You need to get used to the work so that you can spar."

"Yes sir." Mark and Rodney said at the same time.

"Good boys." Master Alveredo said. "Now, Mark, let's start with you. Throw a punch."

Mark took a breath and then punched right in front of him.

"Freeze." Master Alveredo said. "Keep your fist out where you punched."

The master walked up to Mark and adjusted his posture, his arm, and fist. He used his legs and changed Mark's stance.

"You still need to work on this." The master said. "Keep your legs shoulder length apart at all times, even when you walk forward. And when you punch, don't tense up your arms. Be relaxed. When you start to punch, put your hand by your waist, inverted so that your palm would be facing up. Close your fist, and punch, twisting your fist so that when you make contact, your knuckles land on your target. Don't forget to breathe. Breathe deeply before the punch, and then when you let it out, punch. Now do it again."

Mark tried his best, but it was like what he did before, although his stance was alright.

"We'll work on that." Master Alveredo said. "Now you, Rodney."

Rodney took a stance and punched with his right hand. The master adjusted his posture and stance much like how he did for Mark.

"You guys are about the same in skill, although Rodney is more relaxed." Master Alveredo said. "Work on punching with your right arms. I will return as I need to see how the other students are doing."

They continued using breathing exercises as they punched. They applied what they learned with music and breathing. They relaxed their arms to the best of their ability and continued punching the air. The master came back and watched them for a minute. He then put up a hand.

"Ok guys, now I need to teach you how to walk." He said.

Master Alveredo relaxed his whole body. He backed up a little and then started shuffling forward. He started with bringing his left leg forward, and his right leg back.

"This is called the half-moon stance." He explained. "You bring your back leg to your front leg in the shape of a crescent."

He pulled his right leg, with the foot touching the ground, to his left leg, and then moved his right leg forward. He placed his right foot forward.

"For this half-moon stance," He said. "I want you to have your fists upside down at your sides. Now walk forward."

Rodney and Mark moved slowly, looking down at their legs to make sure they were doing the right thing. They walked forward to the other end of the dojo.

"Good." The master said. "You guys have got it. Just move slowly. With time and practice, you will get better. Don't tense up, you're not doing anything requiring tensing up. You are just walking with your hands by your side."

They seemed to get it. Next, the Master had them walk and punch at the same time. They would move one foot to touch the other, and then step forward. They would bring one hand from their waist and punch the area in front of them at the same height as where their chins would be.

"Good," Master Alveredo said. "Just remember to breathe with the punches."

The master left them alone once more to do their exercises. They walked from one end of the dojo to the other end, and then back again. They did this several times. The Master stopped them, this time with the three other students behind him.

"Okay, so we are almost finished the lesson for today." He said. "Finally, we will end with _The Circle of Success_. Okay everyone make a circle."

Everyone got in a circle.

"Ok, so we have two beginners with us." Maser Alveredo said. "First, George will go. Sheena will be next, and then Andrew. Beginners always go last so that you guys get to know what to expect."

George walked into the middle of the circle. He closed his eyes.

"One!" the master said, pointing to Andrew.

"Two!" The master said, this time pointing to Sheena. "Open your eyes."

George immediately opened his eyes, and prepared to block with his left arm down, to protect his stomach, and his right hand at his waist to lash out against someone. He kept his gaze down, and used his peripheral vision to watch everyone else at the same time. Andrew was to George's right. He punched at George, who brought his arm ups from his stomach, and blocked the punch. He followed up by punching the air in front of Andrew's throat. He did not make contact.

"The point of the _Circle of Success_ is to give you experience of people attacking you." Master Alveredo said. "You learn to expect the unexpected."

Andrew moved back to his position. George remained in the middle of the circle. Next, Sheena attacked him by kicking him. She used a front kick. He blocked low with his left hand, and then put his right hand up with all fingers pointing outwards. He did a karate chop to her shoulder but stopped short and did not make contact.

"Well done, George." The master said as George bowed to him. "Sheena, if you will."

The little lady walked into the middle of the circle, and closed her eyes. Master Alveredo chose Andrew and George to attack her. She opened her eyes. Andrew did a roundhouse kick to her shoulder, which she grabbed and then followed up with a kick of her own to his pelvis. They did not connect. She let go of his foot. Next, George grabbed her from behind in a bear hug. She dropped down into a sitting position, elbowing him his chest with her right arm. She then grabbed one of his fingers, and pulled his arms off her. She did an uppercut to his face, but did not connect.

"Wow," Master smiled, "She gave you a run for your money there George."

Sheena bowed to the master and went back to her spot. Next, it was Andrew's turn. He was a lower rank so only punches could be used against him. Sheena and George were chosen to attack Andrew. Sheena did a knife hand strike to his neck. Andrew blocked high and did a thrust punch to her abdomen. George did a normal punch to Andrew's face. Andrew blocked the punch and pretended to knee George in the stomach.

"Well done, Andrew." Master Alveredo said as Andrew bowed. "Next, who wants to go first?"

"I'll do it." Rodney said.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" the Master asked.

"Yes." Rodney said.

"Okay," Master Alveredo said. "You will only be attacked with hammer fists."

The master pulled up his right hand, and created a fist. He brought his hand down like a hammer.

"All you need to do is block it." Master Alveredo said.

Rodney walked to the center of the circle and closed his eyes.

"One," The Master signaled to everyone except Mark, whose eyes widened. "Okay open your eyes."

Rodney opened his eyes, and looked to the people that would be attacking him. Altogether, everyone except Mark did a hammer fist. Rodney could only bring both arms up as they attacked him.

"It won't get any worse than that." Master Alveredo said as everyone returned to their position. "Okay, Mark, it's your turn. We can't do the same thing because you will see it coming. Now, close your eyes."

George and Andrew were chosen to attack him.

"Open your eyes." Master Alveredo said.

Andrew brought up his left arm, and created a hammer. Mark blocked it with what he thought was an appropriate block.

"You need to learn how to block." Master Alveredo said. "I will teach you both."

George did the same, and Mark blocked.

"Okay, Rodney, get back in the middle, I'll give you a chance for real this time." Master Alveredo said.

This time, Sheena and Andrew were chosen. Rodney performed just like his brother. He blocked the hammer strikes and then bowed to the master.

It was over, so they all bowed to each other. Mrs. Patel was waiting in the lobby with Alexandra who was drawing a dress of her own design that she wanted to build in the OASIS. The other students left as Master Alveredo asked Mark, Rodney and Mrs. Patel into his office.

"The boys have a long way to go." The master said. "Did you guys enjoy today's lesson?"

"It was really good." Mark said.

"I can't wait to actually spar." Rodney said.

"Okay, so I have items for you both to try on." Master Alveredo said, pulling out two medium sized men's uniforms. "Go try these on while I speak to your mother."

The boys exited the office, and went into the changeroom to try on the uniforms. Master Alveredo and Mrs. Patel discussed what was expected of all students. They only needed to come twice a week. They needed to practice everything that they learn at home. The uniform, special shoes, and belts came free. Any additional gear was extra costs. Mrs. Patel wrote the master a check. The boys came out and the master looked them over.

"The uniforms fit." He said. "Now try the shoes. What size do you wear?"

"Ten," Mark said.

"Same." Rodney said.

The master went into a closet and produced two sets of black shoes for the boys to wear in the dojo.

"Welcome to the World of Martial Arts." Master Alveredo said.

* * *

Princess May's avatar sat cross-legged in a cage. She was still wearing the jumpsuit she had been kidnapped in. Amira was trying every button, every command, but nothing was working. Meanwhile, Tridosk was working on something at a workbench.

"I don't understand," She said, finally breaking the silence between them. "I don't have anything to do with you and your friends."

"But you do." Tridosk said, putting down what he was working on, and then he walked up to the cage. "You are Jack 100292402's only female friend on the OASIS not associated with the High Five. For years, he was only interacting with males and perhaps some females, but only briefly. He never danced with any of them. So now here you are, and you are interested in him as well."

"So, what if we danced once." She said. "Everyone grows up and goes through puberty some time."

"You know better." Tridosk said, giving her his whole attention. "We analyzed his heartbeat when he was with you. Lynx hacked into Jack's avatar after they destroyed each other. Lynx went into his history and that's how we found you. You are his weakness. And until the High Five gives Lynx back his access to his avatar, we will keep you here, hidden from the rest of the world."

"We all bought the Console and Headset." Princess May pleaded. "How is this fair?"

"How is it fair for the High Five to keep competing for different items when they own everything?" Tridosk asked Princess May. "If Artemis and Jack did not go after the Easter eggs, Lynx would have left everyone alone."

"I think _you_ know better." Princess May said. "If he got the power, he would not just sit there; he would try out his winnings. He would make sure that the Easter eggs were working. He might even get carried away and destroy maps."

"Maybe you're right." Tridosk agreed. "Lynx does like being the best. He would try fighting and use the Easter Eggs. So far it seems that he had only used the immortality and unlimited ammunition. He has not used the egg for the vehicles. I want the High Five to grant him what he won. Then, you will be free."

"I'll talk to 'Jack' and see what he can do." Princess May said. "Why are you helping this asshole?"

"He's been my ally for years." Tridosk explained. "We went to high school together and now he's working as an armored truck driver and salesman. I'm a private investigator. He works hard and wants a diversion from real life. If anyone deserves the OASIS its Lynx."

"And you think that I don't deserve the OASIS?" Princess May said. "Who are you to say who deserves the OASIS or not? You're not the High Five."

"And who are they to say who deserves the OASIS?" Tridosk countered. "Halliday made it for anyone, regardless of the circumstances."

"I'll see what I can do, but no promises."

"That's all we want."

* * *

Mark woke up on half hour before he usually got up for school. He put on running shoes, a sweat pants, and a t-shirt. His brother had done the same. They went out for a jog around their street. They started at their house, jogged down to the end of the street, crossed the street and ran on the other side on the sidewalk. They ran until they finished 25 minutes and took the last few minutes to get home as quick as they could. They were not really used to this so they walked quite a bit and jogged slowly. They got home and took a brief shower, one after the other. They left for school and walked together. Mark and Rodney parted ways, Rodney going to find his friends, while Mark went to the cafeteria to find his. He saw Amira standing at the entrance. She was frowning.

"Hi Amira," Mark said apprehensively. "I am so sorry about what's been happening on the OASIS. The High Five are meeting together to think about what needs to be done to save your avatar. They have yet to talk to me about it."

"It's out of our hands now." Amira said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good." Mark said.

"Something looks different." She said. "You look less sad."

"Nick said I should give martial arts a try." Mark replied. "My brother and I signed up last night, and this morning we went for a jog around our street. Exercising causes the happy hormones to be produced, so maybe that's what happened. Exercise has made me more awake, and less irritable than usual."

"That, and you have a girlfriend." Amira said, winking at Mark, who responded immediately by hugging her.

"My life is turning around for the better." Mark said. "It is because of you, Amira. You have brought balance to my life."

"No, Mark." She said. "You could have said no in the first place. You could have decided not to talk to me when I first messaged you because you didn't know me. You made the choice to follow through."

"I'm happy that I made the right choice." Mark said. "I'm happy that you are in my life. The High Five were happy to help, and hopefully they will free you from Tridosk and Lynx."

"Thank you, Mark." She said.

"You are welcome." He said. "Did you want to hang out with me and my friends before class?"

"I usually hang out with Jessica and Tyler. You go ahead and hang out with your friends. They need you."

"Okay, see you in Psych."

With that they parted ways until they saw each other again in class.

* * *

Helen was overseeing the programmers as they scanned the OASIS for Tridosk. They found that he had played recently on several maps, in free for all games. He used _Spawn's_ ax _Agony_ to slay foes. He also used Robocop's pistol, the _Auto 9_ as well. It blasted enemies away into coins. He was winning, but not cheating to do it. He was not like Lynx but liked the challenge of playing this way. He did not bring attention to himself. However, the programmers could not pinpoint where he was at that very moment. Perhaps he was not on the OASIS at that time? Helen could not be sure. She used special coding to find the pattern on where Tridosk liked to play. He liked to play on several different maps against clan-less players. He did not use sniping weapons, but preferred to be face to face with his enemies. He also seemed to like his _TIE Interceptor_ as he constantly played air battles with that vehicle. He did not seem to have a land vehicle that he played with.

Helen notified her clan about the pattern of the games that Tridosk played. They needed to talk to him. Helen, Wade, Samantha, Toshiro and Akhide got together in their personal play room. Akira Tomoyo was with them with a USB device.

"Here is a copy of the contract that we have drafted." She told them. "To find him, you need to play on five different maps until he shows up."

"He has a pattern." Helen also explained. "He likes playing free for all games, and flight battles. Our programmers are in the OASIS, monitoring the maps he likes to play for us. They will tell us where he appears. It will be important for us to play by ourselves and have copies of the contract for him to sign to give Lynx back access to the OASIS."

The five players agreed, and jacked onto the OASIS. Art3mis was in a ship, the _Swordfish II_ from _Cowboy Bebop_. She entered a map where ships or planes were firing various weapons at each other such as bullets, lasers or missiles. Parzival was on a desert map, playing against other players who wanted to play without a clan to back them up. Shoto played on a swamp-like map. Daito played in a jungle. Aech played in an icy region. They played against other players, making sure to monitor their message feed to see when Tridosk would appear. Two and half hours went by. The High Five were racking up scores. Art3mis was doing the best as she was invincible, had unlimited ammunition and had a very fast vehicle. The others had to use different weapons as they ran out of ammunition. They needed to seek cover against other players who wanted the honor of defeating a member of the High Five. They also needed to apply health packs to their avatars so they would not die. They collected coins from those players who perished. At various points in the maps, there were positions where they could collect health packs. If they totally ran out of ammunition, they would have to leave the map and buy more ammunition from a merchant. Either that, or they would talk to Art3mis into giving them as much ammunition as they needed.

Parzival was playing, using a machine gun from _Gears of War_ which had a saw attached to it. He only had a clip and a half left until he had to leave the map. Suddenly, he got a message from one of the programmers.

"Mister Watts?" The programmer said. "It appears that the avatar Tridosk is about to enter the arena that you are playing in."

"Have Akira insert the USB with the contract into my console." Parzival ordered.

A portal indeed opened on the desert map that Parzival was playing on. Tridosk appeared, and the portal closed behind him. He drew his pistol, and appeared to be looking around. He was trying to find where the closest enemy was. Parzival climbed to the top of a cliff, and looked around the map for Tridosk's position was. He found Tridosk, and took off. He ignored fire from other players and pressed on. Three bullets smashed into him, forcing him to activate a shield while he administered a health kit to his avatar. He then fired several shots at the players who were attacking him. He did not want to lose all his ammunition so made a dash for where he thought that Tridosk would be. Finally, he emerged from a hill, and looked at where Tridosk once stood. He was nowhere in sight. Suddenly, a blast from the Robocop pistol alerted Parzival that Tridosk was near. He followed the sounds of bullets until he found Tridosk, scooping up coins that he earned from destroying an enemy.

"You must be Wade." Tridosk said as he turned his scaly head and examined Parzival's avatar. "I would presume that you waited for me for quite some time. You want me to release Jack's girlfriend from wherever it is that I have her."

"We don't have to be enemies, Tridosk." Parzival pleaded. "You're an awesome player. How about we negotiate the terms of making you part of our clan? Join us, Tridosk."

"You want me to turn my back on one of my closest friends, Lynx?" Tridosk asked. "He wants to be great in the OASIS. He wants you and the High Five to be fair to all players. We acknowledge that you did make up for it by supplying the players with more Easter eggs and the Skulls for them to find. I only have one thing to ask of you; give Lynx back access to his avatar and all of his gear including the Easter eggs, and we will let Princess May go."

In the real world, Akira Tomoyo was told that Wade/Parzival was speaking to Tridosk. She inserted the USB device into Wade's console and waited while it loaded. She touched his arm, indicating that the program for the Contract was ready for Tridosk to sign.

Within the OASIS, a portal appeared behind Parzival.

"Follow me." He told Tridosk.

Parzival turned around and walked into the portal. Tridosk followed.

* * *

"Shit." Lynx/Vladislav swore as he watched the OASIS using a computer program from his home.

Tridosk had gone dark, as if he had entered another program altogether. The High Five would not harm his avatar to get to Lynx himself, would they? He switched monitors and looked at Princess May, who was still trapped inside the Chat room that Tridosk had created. Vladislav looked at the loadout for his avatar. It was still indicating that he could not play on the OASIS. He scratched his chin, wondering what Tridosk was doing. Would Tridosk, aka Lewis sell him out? He wondered if there was anything he could do. He decided that the best thing would be to monitor Princess May to see if the cage would be opened. He got up to stretch. He decided that he could not do anything for now, and decided to get some air. It was all in Tridosk's hands now. Surely things would work out.

* * *

Nick looked up Mark's number. He called Mark, but got no answer and left a voice message for Mark to call him whenever Mark got a chance. Amira had told Nick about everything that had happened. He wanted to hear Mark's side of the story to see what was happening on the OASIS. Nick was in the middle of a session with a client when Mark called. This time, Mark left a message and gave Nick his email address. As soon as the session was over, Nick shot Mark an email.

 _Hey Mark, how are things? Amira told me that there were some bad things happening on the OASIS between you and two other players. What is happening? By the way, you can save this email address and we can talk to one another through email if that suits you. Anyways, Amira said that this other player kidnapped her avatar. She said that someone you played against lost their access to the OASIS and had their friend attack Amira online. Is everything okay with you?_

 _Kindly yours,_

 _Nick_

About two hours later, Mark responded:

 _Hey there Nick,_

 _The High Five and the OASIS company decided to create three Easter eggs. There was this person named Lynx online. He only wants the Easter eggs for himself. He found out about them and tried everything for only him to get the eggs. He shielded one of the worlds so no other players could follow him. He attacked other people. We saved him and his friend that were being attacked by a creature. Art3mis and The High Five competed to get the eggs as well. Art3mis and I were successful in getting the eggs. They granted us Immortality online, unlimited ammunition, and a boost in speed for all our vehicles. He really believed that there should only be one person to get the eggs, but it turned out that three people could get them._

 _He went crazy and started attacking people at random. He destroyed maps and looted other players, stealing some of their gear. He tried stealing things that I had, but I stopped him. He could stop my eggs from being useful and I could not use them anymore. The High Five decided that something had to be done, so they held a meeting with all people who use the OASIS. They decided to place other Easter eggs throughout the OASIS for people to collect. They also decided to add items called Skulls to make games challenging. They decided to put a bounty on Lynx. He fought the High Five, and nearly won. Art3mis gave me another egg, and this time, all my items including the Easter eggs were not only restored, they made my avatar powerful. But, it came with a price. I could defeat Lynx, but we would always be bound together. I could only come back online if he did. I remember you and I had a conversation about it. You said it wasn't fair._

 _Somehow, Lynx found out that Amira and I got together online once. He used his friend Tridosk to capture her avatar. Now, if Lynx does not get what he wants, Amira's avatar will be forever captured. I don't know if she could just restart her console and create a new avatar. The High Five said that they will try and come to terms with Lynx and Tridosk. They will get Amira back from wherever on the OASIS Tridosk and Lynx have her locked away. Without access to the OASIS, I don't know what help I can be, but I will be there if Amira wants to talk to me in person._

 _Other than that, I told my mother about what you said about pursuing martial arts. She agreed, so me and my brother applied to go to The Rising Star's Martial Arts Dojo. My brother and I went for a jog this morning and Amira said she noticed a difference in me as I spoke to her in school. I think this is meaning that my life is going to change for the better. I could not have started this without Amira and your suggestion. I feel a change starting to happen._

 _Thank you, Nick, and talk to you soon._

* * *

Tridosk looked at where he and Parzival were. It was a huge room with a contract on a table next to a pen. Obviously, this was for Tridosk to sign.

"We figured that you wanted to get Lynx his access to the OASIS back, and then you will let Princess May go free." Parzival said. "If you and Lynx agree to our terms, he can have access back to the OASIS however, he will only get what he bought and collected. He will not get items that he had stolen from other players."

"What about the Easter eggs?" Tridosk asked.

"Lynx did get them fairly," Parzival explained. "But he fought against others who won the eggs as well. We all need to share, even the High Five needs to share what we have. I am willing to do that, how about you, Tridosk?"

"What could you possibly give me?" Tridosk asked.

"We can give you special access to games or movies that you might be interested in looking at or playing here on the OASIS." Parzival offered.

"Let me read the contract first." Tridosk said, and Parzival nodded in agreement.

 _Dear Tridosk,_ it read. _It has come to the attention to the High Five and the programmers for the OASIS that you are holding a player's avatar hostage. You are not allowing her to play even though she or her parents bought the console and headset for the OASIS legally. You must give her back control of her avatar. We acknowledge that we did the same to your friend, Lynx. We will allow him to have access to the OASIS, minus things that he stole which need to be given back to the players that bought or earned them. No further action will take place, and he will have the abilities associated with the Easter eggs he won. We need your signature here, as well as access to Princess May to verify that her avatar is still alright and not damaged in any way._

"So, what I'm reading here, is you want me to give you access to…" Tridosk began to say, "to the place which I am holding Princess May's avatar? It's in a private chatroom; only Lynx has access to it. If you give him access to the rest of the OASIS again, I will gladly show it to you guys, and not before. Those are _my_ terms. Take it or leave it."

"We also need Lynx to sign a contract as well." Parzival said, not at all taking offence at what Tridosk had said. "He will not destroy maps and he will not steal items again. Otherwise we will strip you both of access to the OASIS, and there will be nothing that anyone could do to bring you both back."

Parzival pulled out a glowing ball.

"Download this file into your computer." Parzival said. "Send it to Lynx for him to sign and scan so that we have it in our records."

"Okay." Tridosk said. "I'll have him sign this contract."

With that, Tridosk could leave the chatroom that he had been downloaded into.

* * *

Wade took off his headset.

"I don't know about this." He said to the rest of the High Five, who had jacked out of the OASIS. "Tridosk does not want us to hurt his friend. I'm not sure how this Lynx person will take the terms of the contract."

"We need to have faith that Lynx will listen to reason." Samantha said. "He can't keep Princess May's avatar locked away forever. Tridosk seems to be a calmer person. We might be able to reason with him. In the meantime, we need our programmers to enter Jack's console and have it so that Lynx cannot affect him ever again."

"Once we give Lynx back his access," Helen said out loud. "Jack will have his as well."

"Yes," Toshiro said. "Everything will be back as they were, except you guys will have your Easter eggs."

The High Five continued speaking about business in the OASIS…

 **GoldDragonZ** : Thanks for reading. I hope you guys like the story. Please review.


	11. Chapter 11

Ready Player One: The Adventures of Jack

Chapter Eleven

 **GoldDragonZ:** I am enjoying writing this story, and hope that people will like it, too.

Lynx looked at the contract. It seemed that if he played the game fairly, and promised to be fair to other players, he could get his avatar and everything that he had back. However, that meant he could not copy codes, copy items, or change things that were preset in the OASIS. He could no longer hack into the OASIS and make his avatar to be superior to others. He would have to level up the normal way; by purchasing items using coins he won fairly, or use real money that he did not really want to spend. He gritted his teeth as he read over the contract. No doubt, from now on, the High Five and their allies will be watching him to make sure that he obeyed. He signed the contract and scanned it in. He submitted it to Tridosk who had to message Parzival. They had to meet again in that same room they first discussed the contract at. Vladislav waited for his friend to message him using the internet on his computer. He waited for a while, and then he received word from Tridosk/Lewis.

"Hey Vlad." He said in his message. "Everything is good. You will have access to the OASIS again in two hours. They must make sure everything is up to date and coincides with our agreement. We can now free Princess May."

"Ugh." Vladislav sighed. "I guess we can't help it. Free the bitch."

Tridosk entered his chat room, and disappeared. Vladislav would have to think about what his next move would be. These two hours should be enough time for him to figure something out.

* * *

Mark was in his computer class when his cell phone vibrated. The teacher was concentrating on his screen and seemed not to hear it go off. Mark checked the phone. The message was from Helen:

 _Princess May is free. Lynx is online._ That is all that the message said.

Later that day, during lunch, Mark went to find Amira. He saw that she was sitting with her friends. He walked up to the table, and heard the friends laughing at something Tyler had said. Eyes suddenly fell on him and everyone went silent.

"Hey guys." Mark said. "I just need to talk to Amira."

Amira had been sitting with her back towards him. It was not on purpose, but it was just the way he walked up to the table. She turned and he could see that she was frowning.

"Hey Mark, what's wrong?" She asked, getting up from the table.

"Nothing." He said, although he was quite nervous being in front of her friends. "I just have good news. You can use the OASIS again. You are free."

"I am? That's wonderful." She said, smiling. "We can hang out online now! Wait, does that mean you get to be online again?"

"The promise was that if Lynx came back online, I would too." He said. "I will be allowed to come back as well."

"That's awesome!" She said. "I have a few things I want to share with you!"

"Nice!" Mark said. "But my console is on its way to the OASIS' headquarters to be looked at. I think the programmers there are going to do something so no one can hack into my console again. We might have to give it a few weeks."

Amira hugged Mark, smiling. Everything seemed to be turning alright.

* * *

Lynx was back in the OASIS. He was racing again with his alien ship from _Independence Day_. He was racing other vehicles that could fly. It felt so good for him to be in control of something. He made sure that for now, he did not do anything to bring down the wrath of the High Five. No doubt they had people watching him all the time. They wanted to know if he was cheating again. He needed to gain as much coins as possible to buy the things he would have stolen. His ship was faster than any other because of the Easter eggs, but that did not make the race any easier as there were twists and turns as they flew through a wormhole of sorts. If he crashed, his vehicle would be okay because he had the immortal egg as well. The only thing would be the abrupt stop would allow other people to pass him. But he was good at most games. He was in third place though, as his ship did not have the right capabilities. There were several players who had been there long before he was on the OASIS. That was why he needed to pay for upgrades. He could no longer hack the system and give himself everything that he wanted. He flew and went with the twists and turns. For some reason, the player in front of him made a rash turn and crashed. He took their spot in the race. The person who came in first and Lynx finished the race. Lynx won 250 000 coins. The winner in front got 500 000. Lynx grunted as he left the racetrack. He needed to go back to his chatroom and find out if there was anyone offering cheap upgrades for items that he had. He needed to be ready to face Jack again…

* * *

Three weeks passed. In that time, Rodney and Mark learned different strikes in martial arts. They did the Circle of Success again, with a few different students. Their piano teacher had a concert for all the parents to watch and be proud of their children. Mark and Amira went on several dates after school. Mark was starting to get out of his shell. He had spoken to Nick a few times, but Nick was busy and could not book a time to see Mark just yet. That was fine with Mark, he still had his best friends John, Tom and Justin to talk to. They seemed to be acting different. They knew that Mark was successful online, but now he had a girlfriend in real life. Of course, anyone could go on the OASIS and talk to other people. There was a whole section where people could go and spend time with each other. Some areas stipulated that you needed to be a certain age to enter as there was explicit content with the media that was being used there. You could also have sexual encounters on the OASIS. It was built for people who had different tastes.

Now, it seemed that Mark was getting more attention from people in real life, though. He had not been online for weeks. Instead, he was talking to Amira, and whoever was with her at the time. He started also talking to Jessica and Tyler. They also offered a seat to him when they were having lunch. Mark would spend half of lunch with his friends, and the other half with Amira. He did not like just ditching his friends. He wanted them to remain in his life, although it seemed that things were changing for him and his brother. His sister was also doing well designing outfits for people online. She was raking in a big amount of coins. She continued to draw and apply it to the OASIS. People were happy that she was helping them out.

As for the High Five, they were getting praise from different companies who liked what they were doing with the OASIS. They were changing things, and getting more companies involved. The OASIS was growing. Wade Watts was hiring small time firms to work for him and their company. They were programming different things that could be bought or earned in the OASIS. These items could be won if you finished certain tasks. People could now play or watch sports online. Sports fans could buy jerseys and apply the to their avatars while games were going on. Different clans could sell items for coins to finance different things that they were interested in. Helen/Aech had opened different garages all over the OASIS where players could fix vehicles of any size. They could also customize their vehicles as well. And then, in regards to spaceships, the High Five opened Shipyards where players could build and customize ships of any size. They could also fix ships that were broken from participating in races or battle.

Also, the High Five received Mark's console and his headset. They had their programmers analyze the console. They scanned everything that Mark and earned and looked at the Easter eggs that had been effected by the programming that Lynx had applied to them. They were able to reverse the programming and freed Mark's avatar from the constraints they had made. _The Tensa Zangetsu_ appeared once more on the OASIS. Jack_100292402 was on the bridge sitting in the captain's chair. His golden armor was once more in his vault, sealed so that no other player could access to it. Realizing that the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and Mark's avatar could be hacked, the programmers decided to apply a firewall so no one could get in and take things. Jack now had his Easter eggs restored as well. No one could take these things from him ever again. They also activated a special shield for the _Tensa Zangetsu._ Only people Mark/Jack 100292402 allowed would be able to see it now. No one could see it hovering over maps if he chose to use it there. The rest of it would be up to him. Helen and the High Five looked at what the programmers did and were satisfied with what they had done. They repackaged Mark's console and headset and sent it back to him.

* * *

Prom was in one week. While playing asshole at lunch, a girl in their grade went up to Mark, John, Justin in Tom with one of her friends.

"Hey guys," She said. "Does one of you want to sell your ticket for prom? We would like my boyfriend to come. I can pay you back for the ticket."

"We already paid for the limo." Justin said.

"We have plans after prom to get together." John said.

"No." Tom said. "I want to go to prom."

"I have a date that I'm going with." Mark said.

With that, the girls went to another table to ask if someone else would be able to give them a ticket to prom.

"Hey Mark," Justin said. "Are you coming to our get together after prom, or do you have plans with Amira?"

"I don't know." Mark said. "We haven't spoken about it."

"David Miranda and Krystle Levesque and her boyfriend Scott are coming." Justin said. "They are coming with us in the limo and will be at our party."

"Okay, I will ask Amira what she wants to do." Mark replied.

Mark put down his cards, and got up. He walked up to Amira's table.

"Hey Amira." He greeted her, and then spoke to her friends. "Hey guys. Can I talk to Amira?"

"Hey Mark, what's up?" Amira said, smiling.

"What plans do you have after prom?" He asked. "My friends are having a party at one of their houses. The limo will take them there."

"I'm sorry Mark," She replied. "My friends and I already made plans to go to a cabin near the lake."

"Oh, okay." Mark said, and then turned to return to his friends.

"Mark." Amira said, getting up from the table. "Come with me. There's more than enough room for you to come with me to my friend's cabin."

"We would be spending the night together." Mark said. "Would it be wise? Wouldn't your parents object?"

"We spoke about it." Amira said. "They trust me. They know my friends, and I have told them about you."

"Where are we meeting to go to prom?" Mark asked.

"We are meeting at Jessica's house." Amira said. "I'll text you the address.

"Alright cool." Mark said.

* * *

The week passed quickly. Before prom, Mark bought a wrist corsage for Amira. It had pink and white flowers on it with several green leaves. He needed a suit, so for prom, his mother did not go to work that day and took him shopping for a suit. She picked out several which Mark tried on. He liked one which was navy blue. The lining inside the blazer was dark green. The blazer was unique as it was designed for using a bow tie. Mark picked out a red bow tie, and white dress shirt to go with it. His mother bought him new dress shoes, which had shoes laces. Mark made sure everything fit. They left the stores. Mark had left school at lunch as half of the day was spares and he could leave if he had parental permission. His mother had come and gotten him. He made sure to have a shower. He used a special skin scrub to get rid of acne. He had been using it for weeks, and it seemed to be working, however several scars were still evident. He put on cologne, ironed his pants and shirt, and put everything on. He decided not to wear his glasses. He only needed glasses to see far, like on a chalk board. He could see alright. His mother did his hair using gel. She took a few pictures. His father was there as he had yet to go to work. He fixed Mark's collar.

"Son," Mr. Patel said, handing him a condom. "We want you to do your best. We want you to follow the rules. I know you may think that high school is it, and that anything that happens now will last forever. You need to know that everything changes as we go through phases in our life. You are almost finished high school now, and you continue making us proud. If you do decide to have sex, please use a condom. We want you to know that having a child right now might bring shame on Amira. That, and you might end up working at a low paying job for the rest of your life. We want what's best for you and Amira, Mark."

"I know." Mark said. "I won't let you down."

"Here." Mr. Patel said, giving Mark a duffle bag. "It has a towel, sleeping bag, underwear, a new toothbrush and other things you will need for when you spend the night with Amira like jeans and a sweatshirt in case you are doing things outside."

"Thanks dad." Mark said, hugging him, and then he turned to his mother, who had tears in her eyes.

"Mark, you deserve every happiness, and I hope today goes well for you." She said, and then they hugged.

They took more pictures; Mark with his father, and Mark with his mother. His father had to get ready for work. His mother took him to Jessica's house. Tyler, Jessica, and Amira were already there, taking pictures. The limo had yet to arrive. There were other people there that Mark and Amira knew from their grade. They were all friends of Amira. Even Alan was there. Mark took his duffle bag and walked up to Amira, who was talking with Jessica.

"You look beautiful." Mark said loud enough for everyone to hear.

She was wearing a purple dress. She was also wearing a purple jacket to match her dress. Her hair was done up in curls that went down the right side of her face and had been dyed dark red. She had silver hairpins keeping her hair in place. They had small silver leaves attached to them. She was not wearing glasses, and had dark green contact lenses on. She smiled and walked up to Mark, who produced her corsage. Her eyes widened. He offered her his hand and she placed her left hand in his. He placed the corsage on her wrist, and brought it up to his face and kissed her hand.

"You look handsome as well." She said, blushing. "It looks like you're ready for a fun night."

"Yeah, my dad and mom want me to be careful and prepared for anything that might happen." Mark said.

"My parents felt the same way." Amira said.

Amira's friends and their parents were busy taking pictures. Mark pulled out his cellphone and started taking pictures as well. He took a selfie with only him and Amira. Next, he took a group pictures with Amira and all her friends. He asked one of the parents there to take a picture of him and Amira. And then, the limo came.

"Hey Mark, you can leave you bag here." Jessica said. "The limo will stop here for everyone to gather their stuff. And then, it will take us to the cabin by the lake."

Mark thanked Jessica and put his bag inside Jessica's home.

"You all have fun now," Jessica's mother Mrs. Walsh said, "Enjoy your special day."

Everyone piled into the limo one at a time. For some reason, Mark and Amira were separated. It was fine as it was a short drive to the hall that the prom was being held. Everyone was excited. They were just laughing and talking. Mark had closed his eyes, and began just using breathing exercises that his piano teacher and martial arts teacher had both taught him. He did not want to get sweaty and chose to concentrate on something else other than being in a limo with people he did not really know or hang out with, although he was getting to know some of them through Amira. And then, the limo pulled up to the hall. The driver got out and opened the back door so that everyone could disembark.

Amira and Mark met each other at the entrance to the dance/dining room.

"I'm going to wait outside to say hi to my friends." Mark said. "You can go without me; I'll be in in a minute."

"No, I don't mind waiting with you." She said, taking his hand into hers. "You know, you have beautiful eyes, Mark."

"Thanks." He said, blushing.

They waited 15 minutes, and then another limo pulled up. Tom, John, Justin, David, Krystle, and Scott all piled out of their limo. They were all dressed up. Mark waved to them smiling. Tom, John and Justin walked up to Mark and Amira.

"You guys look great!" Amira said, trying to make a good impression on Mark's friends.

"How was the limo ride?" Mark asked them.

"There wasn't any booze." Tom frowned.

"We asked the limo driver to turn up the music." Justin said. "It was awesome."

"Did you guys take any pictures?" Mark asked.

"My mom took a few pictures." John said.

"My parents took a few pictures as well." Justin said.

"My sister took some pictures." Tom said. "My parents were at work."

They looked at other classmates who were coming. Soon there were too many people outside, so Mark, Amira and the rest of Mark's friends decided to go inside and find their seats. Mark sat beside Amira, while the rest of his friends sat at a different table. Jessica, Tyler, Alan, and a few other of Amira's friends sat with them. They were all speaking to one another, except Mark, who did not know anyone besides Amira. He laughed when someone said something funny, but he was really feeling on edge. He asked Amira if she wanted something to drink; she said she would like some Sprite. He got up from the table and made his way to the bar, which only gave out soda pop to the students. He got Coca-Cola for himself, and Sprite for Amira. He sighed, looking for his friends. Tom was standing, pretending to be a dinosaur, while Justin had his hand to his face, and John was laughing. The others at their table were laughing hysterically. He wanted to be in on the fun. He decided that he would make the best of it for Amira's sake. He smiled when she looked up to him as he gave her the glass of Sprite with ice.

"You know, I think this is a good look for you." She said. "I like what you did with your hair."

"My mom's the one who did it." He replied, abash. "I'll ask her what she did and see if I can do it myself from this day forward."

The night went on. The Chaplain for the school said a prayer before dinner started. For dinner, they either had stuffed chicken with vegetables and roasted potato, roast beef with mashed potato and corn on the cob, or a vegetable dish including broccoli, carrots, sweet peas, and potato wedges for those who were Vegetarians. Amira was a vegetarian, while Mark preferred the roast beef. They also had Caesar salad and for desert, a chocolate cake with coffee and chocolate mousse. And then the student council took the stand. It was their job to organize the Prom. The president went up to the podium.

"Hello, fellow classmates." She said. "Welcome to Prom. I hope everyone enjoyed what they served for dinner. We will be starting the music in a few moments but there are a few things that we need to address. At your table, there are stacks of papers with small pencils. Please leave your choices for Prom King and Queen, Most Likely to Succeed after High School, our grade's Joker, and our grade's Einstein. One of the student council will be collecting the ballets."

Everyone started whispering to each other as they filled out the ballets. They filled out he ballets and then the president took the stage again.

"We will start with the dancing now, and when it is time for dessert, we will announce who won." She said.

The Disk Jockey began playing hip hop music. Mark got up, and instantly offered Amira his hand. She gladly accepted it and they began dancing with each other. Mark did not know how to dance professionally, but only sought fun ways to dance. Jessica and Tyler were dancing in the same way. Alan and a few other students were dancing together, just having fun. Tom, Justin and John made their way over and started dancing with Mark and Amira. For once, there were no boundaries. Everyone accepted each other despite being different. The played several slow songs, and Mark and Amira danced together for the first time, outside the OASIS. They danced in a circle. The music played for half an hour, and then it stopped when the president took to the podium again.

"Hello everyone." She said. "Please sit down. We have the tally in. The Joker of our Grade is Kadyn Johns."

A black youth smiled as people clapped for him. He was well known as one of the funniest individuals in their school. He was always saying something funny, and getting in trouble for it. He got to the stage and was given a certificate, which he showed to the group of students with glee. He smiled as he returned to his table with all his friends. Next, was the Grade's Einstein award. Justin Rihaz won the award. Mark clapped as loud as he could for his friend. Justin bowed and returned to his seat with Tom and John. The next award was for the person most likely to succeed. It went to a girl named Janet Riverton. She went up, and her smile dazzled everyone as she took the certificate. She took her seat with her friends. Finally, it was the choice for this year's prom king and prom queen. Prom king went to a jock named Ryan Derouge, while surprisingly, the award went to an Indian girl who was heavy set. It seemed that the girl, Saumya Sardana had a crush on Ryan, and it seemed that most of the grade agreed; let her win this day and let her have a good night. Mark was pleased. He had not known who to vote for and chose at random, or chose people who were in his classes. He did vote for Justin however. They had dessert and continued dancing the night away. Mark got with his friends and they danced with no bother to anyone who thought they were dancing weird. Mark smiled and laughed with his friends, as Amira was doing the same with her friends. The night went on, and soon Mark needed fresh air. He left the hall and went outside. There was a chill to the air. He blew out his breath, and mist came out. He looked up and saw that the moon was shining. Tonight could not have gone any better. Suddenly, he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Amira was there, and she was smiling.

"I was wondering where you went." She said, and he smiled back at her.

"I just needed some alone time." He said. "I can't stand to be inside right now, especially with a lot of people."

"Don't worry, prom is almost finished." Amira said. "And then, we will go Jessica's lake-side cabin."

"I can't wait." He said.

They stood outside for five more minutes, just relishing each other's presence. And then they decided that it was getting too cold so had to go back inside. Right then, the students were back in their seats, watching a funny video that the student council had created. It went over what some students' experiences were when they first came to the high school. It went over crushes, who the best teachers were, and it had footage and pictures of the students from different times. Mark appeared in a photograph from the talent show when he played the piano. Amira was there as well with Jessica and Alan. Tom and John were up there, together.

Mark and Amira quietly took their seats as the presentation continued. And then, it was over. The lights came on. The music stopped. There were several teachers there just to supervise. One of them took the stand and addressed the students. They needed to remember the time they spent with each other. This night was a good night for most students, although some did not have enough money, or felt no one liked them. It was important for the students to understand that they needed to fight for other people's rights. No one should be bullied. All people should feel welcome. It was a good night and indeed, everyone there felt like they belonged. The night at the hall ended and the friends all went home or to continue festivities at another location. Mark was laughing with his friends when Amira came over to get him. He said goodnight to his friends and left with Amira, Jessica, Alan, and Tyler to go back to Jessica's house and then to the cabin. Mark went to the washroom and changed from his suit to a sweatshirt and jeans that his father had packed for him. Mrs. Walsh let Mark hang up his suit on a hangar in the coat closet. He could get it the day after. Amira also changed but still had her hair done up. She was wearing a hoody and jeans with sneakers on her feet.

The group of high school students were driven to Jessica's cabin by the lake. Mr. Walsh and a few other parents joined them there to supervise. There were some alcoholic drinks like coolers that the parents allowed the teens to drink. There were a few students who were smoking cigarettes. They gathered around a bonfire and sat on wooden benches. Amira and Mark sat beside each other. Mark gazed upon the flames, and put his arm around Amira's waist, bringing her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. There was a chill to the night. Tyler was doing a hand stand while everyone was laughing at his antics. One of the parents offered Mark a cooler. He declined as he did not want anything cold and did not want to get drunk. Amira did the same.

The fire warmed them up, but Mark had something else in mind. He stood up and offered Amira his hand. She took it and they started walking down to the water's edge. The moon was full, and the stars shone brightly. It was a good night for a walk and Mark did not want to miss this chance with Amira. He held her hand affectionately as they walked together.

"This was a good night." He told her. "Thanks for everything, Amira."

"I'm glad you are having a good time." She replied. "I think my friends like you. You can feel free to be yourself. You don't have to be so guarded."

"It's a fault that I have." Mark said. "I have a problem dealing with people, especially women."

"Why is that?" She asked.

"I fear that I'm not good enough."

"I think you are wonderful. I like you very much. You don't have to be better than who you are right now. You are very sweet and I like you. You don't have to be something you are not. You are very determined and strong."

"Amira…I like you too. You are truly beautiful. You are one of the smartest people I know, and I admire you for that. You will be something great, I am sure about that."

"I'm glad I can share this time with you."

"So am I."

They walked and talked about different things. They looked up and gazed upon the stars. They then returned to Amira's friends. They started playing music, and people started dancing yet again. The parents were sitting up on a hill closer to the cabin. They were making sure everyone was having a good time and not doing anything that might hurt others. The teens were all dancing, making fools of themselves. For Mark, the only person who mattered right then and there was Amira. She danced with him for a while, and then her friends took her away so that they could dance. Mark took a seat and watched as the bonfire started going out.

* * *

Tyler, Jessica, Amira and Mark had a room to sleep in. There were two double beds. Mark had his bag and took out the sleeping bag, and spread it on the floor.

"Mark, what are you doing?" Jessica asked.

"I think it would be for the best if I slept on the floor." He replied, blushing at the thought of sleeping with Amira.

"Mark, you're too much of a good guy." Jessica said. "Amira trusts you to do the right thing. I trust you, and no one is going to do anything to each other while there are other people in the room."

"What the hell?" Tyler said. "But, why?"

"It would be just too weird." Jessica said. "Being naked with one person is one thing; being naked with three other people is just crazy."

"But that's also part of prom night." Tyler whined. "we could have a shower."

"You know what, Ty?" Jessica said. "You can go have a cold shower."

"You're kidding me." He said.

"I'm sorry, Tyler." Mark said. "I didn't want to ruin your night."

"It's okay man." Tyler said, smiling wickedly. "I'm just happy I have a girlfriend that I can do things to."

"Me too." Mark admitted.

Amira finished from the washroom and walked into the room. She was wearing a huge white t shirt and black shorts. She had taken off her contact lenses and was wearing her glasses. Mark was wearing a sweatpants and t-shirt.

"Hey Amira." Jessica said. "Mark's afraid that you might try something on him, so he wants to sleep on the ground."

"Mark, is that true?" she frowned.

"No, I just thought that we weren't at that stage yet in the relationship." Mark tried to explain. "We never really spoke about sleeping together like this. I just want to make the right choice."

Amira offered him her hands. He stood up and took her hands in his. She pulled him in tightly and gave him a bear hug. He wrapped his arms around her and they stayed like that for a moment. They separated.

"You can sleep on the bed with me." Amira said. "You are a good guy, Mark. I don't think you will try anything."

"Okay, I'll sleep on the bed with you." He said, smiling sheepishly.

He excused himself as he took his toothbrush, towel and toothpaste from his bag. He went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth and washed his face. He went back into the room and put away his belongings in his bag, including the sleeping bag. Amira was in the bed, and she had taken off her glasses and was reading a book. Mark climbed into bed with her. Jessica and Tyler were quietly speaking to each other about something.

Mark went under the covers and felt that the bed had warmed up because of Amira's body heat. He propped the pillow up so that he could sit up with her. A lamp was on beside the bed. Jessica and Tyler were sleeping in a bed closest to the window, while Mark and Amira were sleeping closest to the door. Mark and Amira were quiet for a moment.

"So, what are you reading?" Mark asked.

"The Catcher and the Rye." Amira said. "It's a good book. I can lend you it if you want to read it."

"Sure." Mark said. "Well, I guess this is where we say good night."

Mark kissed Amira on the cheek, fixed his pillow and adjusted his position. He was afraid of doing something wrong so he tried nothing else except turn his back to Amira and try to fall asleep.

A few minutes went by. Then, Amira turned off the lamp and put her book and glasses away. Mark felt the bed move as Amira tried to get into a good position. Slowly, she snaked her right arm under Mark's arm, and she moved her body closer to his. They started spooning, Mark taking hold of her hand and bringing it close to his heart. He moved and rolled onto his back, and Amira adjusted her body so her right arm and leg draped over Mark's body. His right arm was under her head, and she sighed with contentment. Tonight, had been a good night, and soon they drifted to sleep, holding onto each other.

* * *

In the weeks to follow, Amira, Mark, and Vladislav could use their avatars and consoles once again. Tridosk had let Princess May go, the High Five had let Lynx reactivate his account so that he could use the OASIS again, and the High Five also sent Jack 100292402 his own console and headset. All three players could now log into the OASIS and resume playing. Mark/Jack_100292402 was given his ship, the _Tensa Zangetsu_ again. His Easter eggs had been fixed so that he could continue using them. Amira/Princess May could now go wherever she pleased. If he followed the rules, Vladislav/Lynx was free as well.

Jack invited Princess May to his ship. He showed her everything. He showed her his armory, his vehicles, clothing, gear, and other items that he collected throughout the years. He then showed her an empty space.

"What is this room for?" She asked.

"One day, I had hoped someone special would come along." He said. "I believe you are that special someone. Now, you can store things on my ship. You also have access to my items as well. If you need to fix things, like vehicles, clothing or anything really, you can use the work benches here on my ship. The High Five have opened up places where you could fix things as well."

"Thanks Jack." Princess May said. "Have you ever considered joining a clan?"

"Officially, no I have not decided to join a clan." Jack_100292402 said. "I usually play with my friends that I know in real life. It is only recently that I started playing with other people like the High Five. Who knows, maybe things will change in the future."

A robot came up to Jack, and gave a crisp salute to the captain.

"Sir." It said. "Everything that belonged to you before Lynx hacked into your console has been accounted for."

"Excellent." Jack said. "Fire up the engines. Let's go say hi to the High Five."

* * *

He was back. Everything that he had that he did not steal was back in his possession. The High Five had even let him continue using the Easter eggs. Lynx, whose name was Vladislav Volkovskis used the single server in his house to hack into his console. He copied mines and grenades, but made sure only 20 were loaded onto his player. The last thing he needed was someone snooping around and saying to the High Five that he was cheating again. He made sure he used special codes so that no one could use cloud technology and see what he was doing when he was not in the OASIS. He made a firewall so no one could hack him. He tried using tracking software that he designed to track where Jack_100292402 was. It seemed that he was still not on the OASIS. That was okay, as no one with everything Jack had could stay away forever. They would meet again eventually. Lynx wasted no time and jacked back into the OASIS. He entered his own chat room, and saw that the High Five had sent him coordinates in his ship _The Star Destroyer_ from _Star Wars,_ to go to the ship yards so he could repair his spaceships if anything should happen. He contacted Tridosk who was playing a free for all on a rocky map where it was night time. This map made it necessary to use infrared technology to see at night. There were also alien monsters that the creators had applied to the map so there were many more enemies out to harm a player. These aliens were like the aliens from the movie _Signs_. They were green usually, and yet they could camouflage with their surroundings. Their bodies were not usually creating enough heat to be spotted right away. They were different yes, however the right player could usually spot them with some skill.

Tridosk was using a spaz shot gun to fight his enemies. His avatar was special as its tongue detected movement in the air, and he could see things that moved. He was skilled using his avatar and could discern what was a player, and what was not. He used his shotgun and killed his enemies as fast as he could. Sometimes he got hurt, but he could always use a bubble shield to spend time and heal himself using a health pack. Suddenly, Lynx was there, and flew to Tridosk's location.

"I'm back." Lynx told his friend. "Thank you for your help."

"No worries." Tridosk said. "I just need you to be my partner. Let's continue this fight."

Lynx took to the sky while Tridosk continued battling on the ground. Lynx acted like air support and fired missiles at enemies that were trying to sneak up on Tridosk. He saw something in the air flying towards him. It was a player in a dragon skin. The dragon roared, and Lynx summoned his massive proton cannon. He fired and destroyed the dragon. He felt some satisfaction, because he defeated a dragon, but not _the_ dragon that costed him. He saw that Tridosk was doing well without his help. Lynx continued defeating enemies that appeared on the map. He fired missiles, used mines and grenades and other items that he could use. He used laser swords and cut enemies in half. He used the mini-gun that was attached to his shoulder. He fired heat seeker missiles that destroyed several enemies. He missed the feeling of being the best. Finally, Tridosk seemed to be slowing down.

"Hey Vlad." Tridosk said over a private channel. "I think I'm done playing for today."

"Yeah," Lynx said. "It was fun while it lasted. Meet me at my chat room."

With that, they both left he map.

 **GoldDragonZ:** How is this story thus far? It's going to end soon as no one really likes reading it. What do you guys think? Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

Ready Player One: The Adventures of Jack

Chapter Twelve

 **GoldDragonZ:** I think this is almost finished. Thanks for reading.

Jack stood alone on the bridge of _Tensa Zangetsu_. Everything was back to normal, although he now had the abilities that were bestowed upon him as he had won the Easter eggs. He looked outside the viewpoint to the rest of the OASIS. There were different maps that he could go to. He decided that there was one map he needed to play on. It was a jungle map. People would use the terrain to hide from enemies. They would hide behind trees or huge boulders. They would use small rivers and lakes to hide and then spring into action. Jack had the ability to apply active camouflage. He had to wear a special helmet for his whole body to hide in the jungle. There was a time limit to this ability. He used a drop pod to get down on the map from his ship, and disembarked. He activated the active camouflage and took to the trees.

He saw a few players encounter each other. They began fighting each other. Jack dropped a grenade, which wounded the players as well as surprised them. He had fixed his sword from _Avatar: The Last Airbender_. He dropped from the trees. He disengaged his active camouflage and began fighting the enemies with his sword. He threw the sword at one enemy, and it went right through them. Coins began falling out of the wound. Jack pulled out one Desert Eagle pistol and fired it at the other enemy. In the meantime, the other player applied a health pack and collected some of the coins that had fallen out of his wound. He used Jack's own sword against him. Jack used his black and red _Batman_ Gauntlets and blocked the black blade. He took out his knife from his left boot and started fighting the players. The one with Jack's sword pulled out a gold rifle and he dropped Jack's sword. Jack somersaulted before the enemy could fire. He picked up his sword and slashed the player from the groin to the head, spilling coins out of the body. He grabbed the gold weapon and used it to fire at the other enemy.

The enemy burst into coins. Jack dropped the weapon as it started to disappear, and went back into the trees. He moved swiftly through the trees, and used his different senses as well as a radar that he had created. He found a player dressed in Jedi robes fighting a white gorilla. The Jedi was wielding a blue lightsaber. The gorilla was using a huge hammer to try and bash in the Jedi's skull. The Jedi was nimble and easily dodged the gorilla's attacks. Jack wasted no time and used his two Desert Eagles to fire at the Jedi. The Jedi threw down a bubble shield. Jack kept firing, and took on the gorilla. The gorilla charged at Jack, who used a grapnel launcher and propelled up to the branches in a tree. The gorilla roared and began smashing its fists into the tree that Jack was perched on. Jack pulled out a specialty item. It was a tube with a blue crystal inside it. He dropped it on the ground below. The tube smashed open and the crystal turned to liquid and spread out over the ground, turning everything into ice. The gorilla turned into ice as did the Jedi. Jack waited until the effects wore off on the ground. He dropped down and smashed into the body of the gorilla and picked up the coins that were left behind. He did the same to the Jedi.

Jack took off sprinting. He activated his active camouflage and ran into a clearing. There was a woman using a bow and arrow with explosive tips. She was facing a dinosaur of some sort. Her arrows exploded against the skin of the beast. It roared as the player swore. The woman continued firing her arrows at the dinosaur as it advanced on her. Jack waited to see what would happen. It seemed that the dinosaur had the upper hand as its skin was like armor. The other player continued shooting arrows, until they ran out. The dinosaur growled, extending its fingers as it advanced, mouth open and watering. Jack leapt into action. He disengaged his active camouflage. He stood in front of the woman who now seemed to not have any more weapons. He pulled out his black sword and his knife from the sheathe on his left boot. He held the sword in his right hand, and held the knife upside down in his left hand. He pointed the sword at the dinosaur. The dinosaur growled.

"Fresh meat." The player said. "Do you think that your sword will be a match to my upgraded scales?"

"We'll see." Jack said, and then he sprang into action.

He swung his sword with his right arm as hard as he could. The dinosaur caught it with its hands and opened its mouth. Its mouth clamped down on Jack's head. He pulled his head out of the helmet and backed away. He pulled out a remote control and pressed a red button. The helmet's eyes turned green and the helmet exploded. The dinosaur's head was no more, and the player turned into coins. The player he saved use the moment that Jack was preoccupied and pointed a pistol at his head. Jack stabbed behind him with the knife, and cut into her side. He spun around and smacked the gun from her hand. He grabbed her by the neck and sliced her neck with his knife. Coins came out of the wound and her avatar disappeared, losing a life.

"I didn't want things to go that way." Jack whispered softly.

Killing the woman left a bad taste in Jack's mouth. He left the map and went back to the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He opened a vault and put all his coins there. Next, he signed off and turned off the console…

* * *

The High Five held a meeting with the top programmers. They were tasked with monitoring Tridosk and Lynx behavior on the OASIS. So far, they were playing as normal players would. They would enter free for all types of games and defeat enemies using a variety of weapons. Lynx was actively purchasing items instead of stealing them. He would see an item and find out where they were being sold. He would use actual coins and spend them on the item unless he could not afford them. He continued defeating enemies, and it seemed that he was doing things that were legal, although people did not have a clue that he was immortal now on the OASIS. He was still using War Machine as his avatar. It appeared that he liked the character. They saw that Tridosk was following Lynx around and they were participating in similar matches. They just wanted to kill other players online. They did not do anything other than battle other players. The programmers were fixing all the damaged maps that Lynx had affected with his nuclear bombs. Soon, they were all fixed.

Meanwhile, Mark, or Jack_100292402 would look for gear, clothing, and participate in other games besides free for all types of games. He would also dance with Princess May from time to time. They would get together and watch movies online. They would talk to each other in some of the more romantic settings. They would touch each other as other couples did. It seemed that the OASIS was getting back to normal, although Jack/Mark and Amira/Princess May's lives were changing.

* * *

Several weeks passed. Mark and Amira would get together and study at each other's houses. They met each other's parents and siblings. They refrained from doing anything that might upset their family members. They studied for finals. Soon, they did their exams and Mark pulled off stellar grades. He applied for a college that was in the same region as his house. Amira, on the other hand chose a university in the main city which was Toronto. Mark made it onto the honor roll, as did Justin, David, Krystle, Tyler, Jessica and Amira. Soon, they had their graduation ceremony; Mrs. Patel had done Mark's hair once again. Nick Harvey was there to support both Amira and Mark. He was with his wife and their son. The school gave Mark two certificates, one was his high school diploma, and the other one was to acknowledge that he got on the honor roll. His parents were overjoyed. His siblings and parents took a few pictures of him, Amira, and his friends. John had a get together at his house after the ceremony. Mark and Amira went there, and they celebrated by playing music, and eating good food. John had prepared food especially for Amira because she was Muslim and did not eat meat.

Unfortunately, Tom did not graduate as he was missing a few credits. However, his friends invited him over so that he did not miss out. They spent time with each other until the day ended and everyone went home. Mark's parents were willing to pay for his college however they could not pay for him to rent an apartment or live on campus. He would have to take the bus to and from school. The school although it was in the same region, was still forty minutes away by car; it was about one hour away by bus. Amira on the other hand could afford to live on campus.

The summer went by, and Mark and Amira chose to spend most of the time together, mostly in person. There were only a few times that they decided to go on the OASIS. They would dance together, go to Jessica's cabin by the lake, and they would spend time with each other's families as well. Amira was a good person, and Mark's parents liked her. Jack_100292402 was not spending much time on the OASIS anymore. In the real world, Mark hung out with his friends, studied music, practiced piano, went to piano and martial arts lessons, and was with Amira; he had little time to use the OASIS as he once did.

Meanwhile, on the OASIS, many people had won the Easter eggs that the High Five made available. Crates were also introduced which had different gear, clothing, accessories, weapons, and other downloadable content. New maps were created, and old ones were adapted with better graphics. People were winning the Skulls as well. In the real world, the High Five used the money that they made to purchase a warehouse worth of servers, and several vehicles that they needed to get around with to different buildings. They hired interns who were interested in working on the OASIS. Other people had a dream and the High Five let people's dreams become part of the OASIS. The universe was expanding.

Lynx was observing what was happening. Lynx felt cheated. More people were winning than ever before making the items he did win useless, except for the immortality. Only Jack/Mark, Art3mis/Samantha and Lynx/Vladislav had it. No one else knew about that. Lynx searched for Jack's ship, the _Tensa Zangetsu_. He had programmed a tracking code to be placed on the ship so that he knew when it was uploaded from Jack/Mark's console. Unfortunately for Lynx, the High Five had made sure that he could not track Jack's ship's whereabouts anymore. They had been thorough when they undid the hacking that Lynx had performed on Jack. The only thing he could do was see when Jack logged on as players often chose to find each other to hang out or play against each other. It was legal for him to do this, but it looked like he as having bad luck. He tried finding Princess May, but could not find her either. They were offline. Perhaps Lynx had scared them off. There was no way that he knew what they were doing in their personal lives as they never let him know about it. He was their enemy of course. Princess May/ Amira never even played with Lynx to begin with.

And then, something came to Lynx's mind. Just like the High Five, other players could organize announcements when they wanted to do something. So, he did it. He organized a meeting between all players. He messaged those at the OASIS headquarters what he wanted to say. A few days later, after he requested time to talk to all players, he was given access to a channel so that he could talk to everyone.

"Hello," He said. "No doubt, most of you know me as Lynx, and I did have a bounty on my head. I am now offering you something. I want to play against the best of the best in a spaceship battle. No holds barred. All types of spaceships, airplanes, or any flying vehicle can be used. They must have weapons attached to them. This is not a race. For one hour, we will face each other. You will be allowed to respawn every time you die. The event will take place Saturday at 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time."

Hundreds of players acknowledged that they heard what Lynx had announced. Word got to Mark through his friends about the space battle. No doubt Lynx and Tridosk would be there. Righteous anger pulsed through Mark's veins. He played the piano and did martial arts to calm himself down, however it was not working. He needed to face his enemies as they were mocking him. They kidnapped Amira for Lynx, who had been attacking everyone since the beginning so that he could get access to the OASIS again. Mark waited and logged into the OASIS at 6:00 pm on the Saturday in question. He fired up _the Tensa Zangetsu_. Tom, Justin, and John were with him as well. They decided upon a strategy to try. They would be their own clan. Amira and her friends chose to watch, although Tyler and Alan were going to participate as well. The High Five decided to sit this out and watch as well. The ship Jack would be piloting his Black and Yellow X-wing. Tom would be piloting a _Colonial Viper_ from _Battlestar Galactica_ with a snake painting all over its side. John/Gadanza would be piloting a red and gold _F41 Broadsword_ from the _Halo_ franchise. And Justin/Arathorn would be piloting a blue and black _Jedi Starfighter/eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor_ from _Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith_.

The _Tensa Zangetsu_ would hang back, only engaging if enemies got too close. The Mac cannons were powered up to 100%. The missiles were primed and ready to be fired. Every turret was online as well. Every hangar was closed so no one could come into the ship. Lastly, the deflector shields were up to maximum as well. Jack entered his ship, as did his three friends. Gadanza explained the game to Arathorn, who had a little bit of practice with battling ships. The friends got into their ships. Mark typed commands into his console and the hangar doors opened to allow the four ships to leave.

"How should we do this?" Arathorn asked the other three comrades. "Should we break off into pairs?"

"For now, we should look and see what everyone else is doing." Jack said. "We should have as one unit. I will take the lead, and Arathorn, you take the rear. Open up your shields to maximum, and I will do the same."

They made the formation: Jack was in front, Gadanza and Tom were side by side, and Arathorn brought up the rear. Their shields were up and their weapons were primed and ready.

"If you guys lose ammunition, please go back to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ to get more." Jack said. "There should be more than enough."

"What's our target?" Gadanza asked.

"Everyone else is fair game, but I want to find Tridosk." Jack said. "He kidnapped Amira's avatar and held her hostage. I want to make that guy pay for what he's done. I'm going to take his coins away from him."

The four friends flew for a little bit, and then more and more players appeared on the map, piloting different vehicles that could fly. A clan was piloting the police hovercrafts from _The Fifth Element_. Five hundred players emerged out of hyperspace. They were the Star Wars clans. Mark knew about them because he had beaten them to gain access to the X-wing that he was now piloting. Some were copiloting ships, and there were even several _Millennium Falcons._ There were ships from the different _Star Wars_ video games, movies, comics, and novels. There were droid Starfighters. There were bombers. There were much more than Jack had ever known. And then, something incredible happened; the flagship of the Star Wars universe, the ship that had belonged to _Supreme Leader Snoke_ , in _Star Wars Episode 8_ arrived. There were hundreds of players in the ship, making sure the shields were up and weapons were being primed. They took positions at the different turrets that were there. Several _Star Destroyers_ arrived as well. It was a massive fleet. Jack looked at his radar. There were several other players online as well. There were literally thousands of people playing now. This would be the biggest battle ever to happen on the OASIS. There were no Easter eggs, just bragging rights.

"Jack to _The Tensa Zangetsu."_ Jack communicated with his ship. "Advance on the flagship's position. When in range, fire all missiles, and follow up with the two Mac cannons. When that is done, launch all Robot Interceptors."

The ship lurched forward, and with the advanced speed in its engines thanks to Jack's Easter egg, it made its way to the massive fleet.

"Jack," Tom said. "What are we doing?"

"I'm just having a bit of fun before Lynx and Tridosk get here." Jack said.

"Should we join the Interceptors as they take on that massive bastard?" Gadanza asked.

"No, let the _Tensa Zangetsu_ do its work." Jack said, and then he noticed something.

Another _Star Destroyer_ had arrived. This time it arrived from the opposite direction that the Star Wars fleet had arrived in.

"They are here." Jack said. "Form up on me."

They took off towards the _Star Destroyer_. Only two enemies emerged. One was a spaceship from _Independence Day,_ which was piloted by Lynx, and the other enemy was the _TIE Interceptor_ , being piloted by Tridosk.

Guys, take on Tridosk." Jack told them. "He's the enemy in the TIE Interceptor, and I will take on the other person, Lynx."

Jack looked up and saw that his friends had agreed as they broke formation. This time, Arathorn was in front, while the other two were slightly behind him, but to the sides. They all started firing their primary weapons at Tridosk when they got in range. Mark's X-wing was too fast, so Lynx could not help his friend as Jack took him on. Their ships collided. Thanks to the Easter eggs, nothing happened, they just bounced off each other. Lynx opened the hatch to his ship. He came out and aimed a revolver at Jack's ship. He fired it. The bullet melted as soon as it touched Jack's shield. Lynx could hardly believe what just happened. His special coding that took away Jack's abilities did not work this time. Jack pressed a red button on his dashboard and something shot out from the _Tensa Zangetsu_. Jack opened his hatch and got out of his ship, which turned into a miniature version of itself. Jack put his ship in a compartment inside his utility belt. The gold streak flew forward, and Jack once again transformed into his Gold Dragon State. This time, he had a jetpack on his back, and could now wield his broad sword with both hands as it now had a long hilt and guard. It had golden letters all along the blade as well. The form that Jack had taken no longer had a cape. It seemed that this suit of armor had been made to fly in space.

"Vlad!" Tridosk/Lewis yelled. "I'm being hounded by these guys. They won't stop. I need your help."

"I'll be there in a second." Lynx said, and then he turned to Jack. "Call off your guys. I may not be able to hurt you, but they will pay with their online lives unless you don't stop them now."

"Fine." Jack said as he opened a channel to his three friends. "Guys, leave Tridosk alone. Fight other players."

While all of that was going on, more and more players were coming to do battle. It seemed that the _Star Wars_ fleet was the hugest, while a few _Star Trek_ ships arrived. There were some ships from _Battlestar Galactica_ , _Firefly,_ and a few from several different Anime shows arrived as well. _Gundam Wing_ machines arrived and the battle started getting intense as bombs, lasers, bullets, and missiles were fired at the different players. Jack's friends stayed together and took out several players. They started attacking bigger ships using their missiles, lasers and bullets. As for the _Tensa Zangetsu_ , it had taken a run at the massive ship called the _Supremacy_ , which was Snoke's ship in _Star Wars Episode Eight: The Last Jedi._ It had fired all its missiles, and started firing using lasers to attack it. So far, the _Supremacy's_ shield was holding. The _Tensa Zangetsu_ still had its Mac Rounds. The _Tensa Zangetsu_ was a smaller vessel than _the Supremacy_. To put it in scope, _The Tensa Zangetsu_ could probably hold three _Star Destroyers_ in its hold, minus the vaults, weapons and vehicles that Jack had in there. The robots that Jack employed were now outfitted with weapons in case hackers somehow got in. Jack's Sentinel program was online as well to make sure hackers stayed out. Jack was not fooling around.

Jack looked at Lynx as he put away his ship in the same manner that Jack had done. He pulled out Tridosk's axe, _Spawn's Agony_.

"This will not be like last time." Lynx said. "This time, I used a special code on Tridosk's axe. It now has the power to do what you did to me last time, but I will still be able to use the OASIS as I see fit."

"I don't know if the High Five took away the power I had to defeat you last time." Jack said. "I am not alone in this fight. Someone will defeat you, whether it be me or someone else."

"I doubt that." Lynx said, and then he launched himself forward using his repulsors on his boots.

He brought the axe up and slammed it down as hard as he could. Jack used his sword and swung it upwards. Their weapons slammed into each other, creating sparks. Jack and Lynx used both arms when swinging. Jack suddenly got an idea. He knew how to fight people in the real world. The same techniques he learned could be used in this instance. He thrust his sword forward, right to the midsection of Lynx, who blocked with the axe. Jack let Lynx move his sword, and did not fight it. He followed up by roundhouse kicking Lynx's side. Jack opened his right palm and slammed it into Lynx's face. Lynx fell back, and Jack pressed the advantage. He fought with different techniques that he had learned. Lynx was not skilled in martial arts so did not know how to counter it. Lynx brought out his proton cannon and fired a huge purple beam at Jack. The armor on Jack's left arm transformed into a shield, and it blocked the beam from doing any damage. Jack sheathed his sword on his back and whispered a spell into the palm of his right hand. He flung a blue ball of energy at Lynx when he was done firing his weapon. The ball of energy collided with the proton cannon.

"No!" Lynx screamed as his proton cannon disintegrated into nothing.

He tried different commands to try and bring it back. It would not come back no matter how hard he tried.

"You asshole!" Lynx screamed, and then fired up his missile launcher and minigun.

He fired every weapon he had at Jack, who stood his ground. Jack's left fist transformed into a cannon. The dragon's mouth opened and he fired at Lynx with a blue beam. Lynx was slammed and fell back. He pulled out his special revolver. He had not made any duplicate bullets and only had four left. He fired one. It went right through Jack; however, it was not really Jack. Jack had foreseen the event happening, so as soon as Lynx prepared to fire, he activated active camouflage and left an afterimage of himself instead.

"What?" Lynx said is disbelief.

A hand in the shape of a leopard's paw slammed into Lynx's fist and he let go of the revolver. Jack appeared and grabbed the weapon. Without hesitating, he pointed it at Lynx's head and fired. He fired until the gun was empty, and then he destroyed it by crushing it. Lynx was no longer immortal, had limited ammunition and his vehicles reduced their speed. Lynx tried flying away. Jack fired his cannon once more and it blew off Lynx's legs. Coins erupted form Lynx, which Jack gladly absorbed. He flew towards Lynx and sliced up his body into smaller pieces. These pieces disappeared, leaving behind coins. Jack looked at Lynx's S _tar Destroyer_ and flew to it. He opened his inventory and produced a nuclear bomb. He flew into the main hangar and saw no one there to stop him. He walked into middle of the ship and dropped off the nuclear bomb. He bored through the ship and left it with a gaping hole. He pressed a button on a detonator. The bomb exploded and it destroyed Lynx's ship. Next, Jack looked and found Tridosk, who was using his _TIE Interceptor_ to fight against other players. Jack flew using a golden jet pack. He aimed his left arm, and it turned into the cannon once again. This time, a missile flew out of it. It locked onto Tridosk's signal and flew after him. He tried his best to make it crash into other players, but it was a smart missile. Jack flew after him as well. He used active camouflage so that his enemy would not see him coming.

"This is for Amira!" Jack screamed.

His sword slammed into the wing of the ship. He left a miniature nuclear bomb in the ship where he had cut and flew away. The ship exploded, leaving nothing but pieces and coins of the enemy. Jack flew to the _Tensa Zangetsu_ , which was still doing battle with _The Supremacy._ He put his Gold Dragon armor away in his vault and went to the bridge. His ship's shields were still up.

"Interceptors, Tom, Gadanza, Arathorn, stop attacking the _Supremacy._ " He ordered his robotic minions and friends. "All hands, brace yourselves. Fire both Mac Cannons on my mark."

Jack allowed several minutes to go by for his robots and friends to get out of the way.

"Mark!" He yelled into his headset.

The ship shuddered as the two Mac rounds were fired. The first one brought down the shields and did a little bit of damage. The second round pierced the armor of the massive ship. Jack fired all missiles and lasers as soon as he could at the holes caused by his Mac cannons.

"Reload!" Jack yelled to the robots in his ship to power up the Mac cannons with more rounds. "All interceptors, attack the wound with whatever torpedoes you have left. All others without torpedoes, return to the ship to be reloaded."

Jack then had an idea. He went down to the vault and took out his Gold Dragon armor. He went to the nearest exit and flew out of his ship. He stood on top of it with his boots using magnets to stick on the hull. He brought his hands together and the transformed into one massive cannon. Even his jet pack came together with his arms. He looked to his Heads Up Display and saw that his armor would need to recharge shortly as he only had 35% left inside it. Yes, he had unlimited power when his weapons were concerned, but his jetpacks and shield absorbed most of the energy. He prepared to fire and waited.

"What do you want us to do, Jack?" Arathorn asked. "We're ready to go into battle."

"I have one last thing to try." Jack said. "Just wait for it, and then you can do what you have planned."

Jack ordered his interceptors to fall back once more. He then fired with everything in his arsenal on board his ship and in his Gold Dragon armor. The armor depowered and Jack could no longer remain in it. He used a grapnel hook and pulled himself into his ship. He put his armor away to charge, and plugged it into the nuclear core of the ship. He gave his friends and interceptors permission to do their best in defeating this behemoth. Several of its turrets were still online. Jack ordered his robots to continue to monitor the radars. No doubt, Lynx and Tridosk were still out there somewhere, plotting their next move…

* * *

Vladislav tore off his headset. He could not believe it. He had been beaten once again. He grabbed his headset and started slamming it on the concrete wall that made up his basement. He kept slamming it again and again, and sparks started to fly as the circuitry fried. He dashed it onto the floor.

"Stupid lagging, piece of shit!" He swore as he eyed his console.

He tore out away from his server and pushed everything down. He started stomping his foot down on it and broke it. He took one of his keyboards and destroyed it by using it as a club against the other machinery in his basement. Lynx was no more. From this day forward, he would no longer go onto the OASIS. There was nothing there for him. His greatest foe had defeated him without using hacking. He may have used devious means, but Vlad had plans to use those means as well. He tore out his hair, and just had a meltdown. He wanted to be the one. He wanted to be more important. Now, he was nothing. He was beaten by someone who was beneath him. Suddenly, his cellphone started ringing. It was Lewis. Vladislav decided to ignore the call. There was no way he could talk to someone at that moment.

* * *

Jack decided that with the destruction of Lynx, Tridosk, and the _Supremacy_ , he had won a very big victory. He decided to pull out, and let other players go at it, including his friends. He sighed as he watched from a distance. Other players would assume that he had used all his weapons, power, and ammunition. They did not know him and his ship were invincible and the ammunition was unlimited. His friends were winning. They died a few times, but respawned on board the _Tensa Zangetsu_. Jack's friends used _The Tensa Zangetsu_ as their own mechanic shop to fix their ships as well. The robots examined the ships each time they needed their ships to be fixed. So far, there was no trace of Lynx or Tridosk again. They could come back, like how other players came back. It looked like they had taken this defeat bitterly. It looked like everyone was having fun. Several neutral ships came in to fix ships that had broken down as well. Jack looked to the horizon and sighed. His enemies were destroyed. His love had been avenged. The future seemed to have greater things.

* * *

Five months passed. Mark started College, and maintained good grades. He continued doing martial arts and chose to only practice piano songs he wanted to play. His mom got a raise in pay. His father was close to retiring. Amira would call Mark every night. Mark would speak to her, and sometimes they would find each other online on the OASIS. Mark chose not to join the High Five, because he believed that they would be too powerful. He continued to help people on the OASIS fix things, but he was not online all that much anymore. He needed to study. He decided that he would get into computers and become a technician. He remained in contact with his friends Tom Calcio, John Matthews, and Justin Rihaz. On the weekend, Amira would come home. Mark would see her Saturday nights, and they would have a date night each week. They enjoyed spending time together and they would complain about school, tell each other about new friends, and just have a nice time with each other. Mark was changing. He was no longer quiet. The martial arts were giving him more confidence. He was finding new friends, and even joined the _Campus Church Group_ which met every Wednesday during the day.

He never saw Lynx again. Tridosk was on the OASIS sometimes, but Mark/Jack decided to leave him alone. His new friends found out about the _Tensa Zangetsu_ and were in awe of the size of it and all that Jack owned. He let them borrow certain things. He never let them see that he had the Easter eggs yet, though.

As for his brother, he went into Grade Eleven, and was taking University Ranked classes. His sister went into Grade six. He had made his parents proud and continued to strive to make himself better. He was jogging every day except Sundays. He was doing pushups and practiced martial arts. He was feeling better about himself. He started to speak to people more, and was likeable, unlike what people thought about him in high school. He had changed for the better, and Amira was glad for him. Mark would occasionally speak to Nick Harvey sometimes, and often would seek advice from the older man. No one should be able to tell him what to do. It was all in Mark's hands. He just needed to be smart about how he treated life in general.

 **G** **old** **D** **ragon** **Z:** Thanks so much for reading this story. It was dear to me as it had to do with how my life could have been. I wish I had a mentor like Nick. I wish I had a group of friends like Tom, John, and Justin. Above all, I wish I had a girl like Amira who believed she could help me and wanted to see me do better. I wish there was someone there that I could rely on. If you want me to continue the story, please tell me. If you think it was garbage, please tell me that as well. Have a good one guys!


End file.
